Universal knowledge information and data storage system

ABSTRACT

A system is provided for storing knowledge, information and data (KID). The system includes a plurality of sources of KID, at least one receiver of KID from the plurality of sources, a universal knowledge, information and data store and an interface coupling the receiver and the UKIDS. The interface provides a plurality of logical partitions for storing KID within the UKIDS. In one embodiment, a first level of the logical partitions segregates information into personal and professional KID. A plurality of second personal levels under the first personal level segregates KID storage into a teams of people subset, an activities and organization subset and an organization and administration subset. A plurality of second professional levels under said first professional level segregates KID storage into a clients subset, an output subset, a teams subset and an administration subset.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/541,798, filed Jul. 8, 2005, now U.S. Pat. No.7,698,316, which is a continuation application under 35 U.S.C. 371 ofInternational Application PCT/US04/00527 filed Jan. 9, 2004, whichclaims the benefit of U. S. Provisional Patent Applications Ser. Nos.60/439,181, entitled “UNIVERSAL INFORMATION STORAGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMAND METHOD” that was filed on Jan. 10, 2003 and 60/482,171, entitled“UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE, INFORMATION AND DATA STORAGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ANDMETHOD” that was filed on Jun. 24, 2003. The disclosures of these patentdocuments are incorporated by reference in their entireties as if fullyset forth herein.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialthat is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to systems and methods for storinginformation such as, for example, electronic and printed “hard copy”documents and portions thereof, in a universal knowledge, informationand data repository residing across multiple electronic and physicalstorage platforms.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

One problem facing people in today's information age is managing thevolume of information that each person receives, reviews, stores and/orpasses on to others. While computers and other electronic devices assistin these tasks, electronic forms of communication and duplication havethemselves supported an explosive increase in the volume of informationtransmitted within the home and workplace. Experts describe peopleexperiencing adverse physical and psychological affects of managing anever-increasing volume of information as suffering from “informationoverload.”

One aspect of information overload, for example, is an inability tolocate a document or a portion of a document containing information ofinterest. Often, a person generally recalls seeing the information butcannot recall the specific content and wishes to review the informationagain. Regrettably, the location of the information is not known.Therefore, a search of electronic and/or printed copies of documents isperformed to locate the information. As can be appreciated, thisinefficient handling of information consumes time and generally leads tofrustration.

In an attempt to increase the efficiency by which information is stored,individuals often employ customized naming conventions for storingelectronic and printed information in electronic folders and/or filingcabinets. The aim of the customized naming convention is to describeinformation stored in the storage system to facilitate more efficientretrieval. While a naming convention may assist a first person thatdevelops the convention, a second person or persons seeking access tothe stored information typically does not understand the namingconvention. This lack of understanding is particularly troublesome whenthe first person is not available to explain the convention and thesecond person needs the stored information to complete a job task. Oneexample of an unavailable person includes an occurrence when a personleaves a job and a next person assumes responsibility for the job. Suchresponsibility includes locating and managing previously storedinformation.

Systems and methods exist in the art for managing information storage.For example, FIG. 1 depicts a simplified block diagram of an informationmanagement system 10 as is known in the art. As shown in FIG. 1, aplurality of sources 20 provide information to receivers of information30. Sources 20 include, for example, paper 22 and electronic 24information provided by hand delivered mailing systems such as, forexample, internal office mailing systems, carrier services such as theU.S. Postal Service and FEDERAL EXPRESS® (registered trademark of theFederal Express Corporation, Memphis, Tenn.) or the like, and electronicsystems such as, for example, email systems, time management systems,software application programs such as MICROSOFT® WORD™ (registeredtrademark of Microsoft Corporation, Seattle, Wash.) and LOTUS® NOTES™(registered trademark of Lotus Development Corporation, Cambridge,Mass.) or the like. The receivers of information 30 include, forexample, individual addressees 32 of the provided information that takereceipt by hand or electronically via a computing device 34 such as aportable electronic device such as, for example, PDA, laptop computer orthe like, personal computer, work station or terminal coupled to amainframe computer. It should be appreciated that it is within the scopeof the present invention for the computing devices 34 to broadly defineall standalone and networked computing devices as are known in the art.

As noted above, information of interest to the receiver 30 is typicallystored in at least one of a plurality of storage devices 40 forsubsequent retrieval. Storage devices 40 include, for example, filingcabinets 42 for storing hand delivered information and/or printed copiesof electronic information, electronic records 44 in files or databaseformats residing within memory devices (e.g., hard drives and othermemory devices of the aforementioned computing devices 34).

A number of computer software applications running on the computingdevices 34 provide mechanisms for storing and managing data. However,the inventors have found a number of deficiencies in such systems. Forexample, the use of such conventional systems typically yields divergentand counter intuitive data structures having information stored innon-standard and often incompatible storage devices. As noted above,stress and frustration increase as individuals attempt to findinformation of interest within these systems.

FIG. 2 illustrates a conventional data storage paradigm 50 whereincomputer software applications and manual business processes (referredto collectively as information inputs 60) direct information to a user.The user evaluates the information and typically stores it in a datastore. In the data storage paradigm 50, the data store corresponds to aprocess by which the user receives or evaluates the information. Sincethe user receives and evaluates information in a number of differentways, a plurality of unconsolidated, divergent data stores 70 arecreated. The divergent data stores include, for example, electronicfiles and data bases to paper-based filing cabinets. Generally speaking,the data stores 70 are created “on the fly” and, whether electronic orpaper-based, include data stored in alphabetically ordered sequences.

Manufacturers of computer software applications have created manydifferent kinds of data storage shells. In most cases, these shells aredesigned to hold only the data created by a particular softwareapplication. For example, a pre-set storage location for MICROSOFT® WORDdocuments in a WINDOWS® operating system environment is a hard disk filefolder referred to as “C:/My Documents/WORD.” Similarly, email isgenerally stored within the email application's hanging file foldersystem. In addition to these electronic applications, users may havemanually stored information in, for example, filing cabinets, on theirdesktop, and on bookshelves. The inventors have observed that theaforementioned application/process specific storage locations contributeto the number of divergent data stores (e.g., stores 70) and make itmore difficult for users to locate information within an increasinglylarge number of places. The resulting “clutter” contributes to theaforementioned “information overload” syndrome that is a challenge foralmost every knowledge worker in the world.

While some computer software application such as, for example, MicrosoftCorporation's WINDOWS operating system and EXPLORER file managementsystem provide a frame of reference for accessing data stored indiffering file folders by most software applications, there appears tobe no common portal or universal data structure available to users.Complicating the conventional data storage paradigm (illustrated in FIG.2), the inventors have observed that most employees have no rules orstandards for their individual storage structures 70. As a result, eachemployee's storage structures, which include their library of storeddocuments, are unique and highly customized. The lack of storage rulesand resulting high degree of customization is seen to cause thefollowing business challenges:

(1) When an employee leaves an enterprise their successor(s) find itextremely difficult to understand and manage inherited informationbecause only the departing employee understands their individuallycustomized data storage structure.

(2) The lack of rules or standards causes most storage systems such as,for example, corporate data servers, and individual libraries ofknowledge to degrade over time. One cause is that the vast majority ofemployees have no system of “breaking ties” between documents that couldbe placed in one or more folders within their data storage system 70.Another cause is that ninety-nine percent (99%) of employees do notappear to have a system in place that allows for a uniform datastructure to be applied across all storage platforms (e.g., electronicand physical data storage devices).

(3) It is difficult to tell an employee where to put an important fileor document because everyone has his or her own customized filingsystem. Similarly, it is difficult to advise an employee how to namefiles in a logical standardized way.

(4) Rarely does the typical person separate personal and professionaldocuments within electronic and physical storage devices. As a result, agreater number of documents must be searched through before a documentof interest can be located.

Efficiency experts market file management seminars and/or guides suchas, for example, products and services of the Franklin Covey Co., SaltLake City, Utah USA. However, there appears to be no entity that marketsor teaches a specific, universal, concrete, and tangible informationstructure that is not employee, industry, or business unit specific.Most marketed data storage classes and systems help users to create acustomized filing structure that matches their chosen vocation andstorage style. Such filing structures are seen to include, for example:

(1) Data structures created for a specific individual, industry,vocation, or group.

(2) Data structures created “on the fly” by well intentionedindividuals, the structures are customized in the sense that they havebeen slowly constructed over time in a fashion that even their creatorsfind difficult to navigate after a predetermined period of time.

The inventors have found that the vast majority of these teachings donot direct trainees to merge or synchronize email hanging file foldersystem with other electronically stored information such as, forexample, documents within a “C:/My Documents” hard drive directory tofacilitate formation of a central data repository. As a result,employees are tasked with managing multiple and divergent data storessuch as, for example, email hanging file folders, hard drive documents,various computer applications with separate data storage locations,filing cabinets, bookshelves for manuals, CD Rom libraries, etc., asillustrated generally at 70 of FIG. 2. There appears to be no existingproduct designed to synchronize, organize, and pare down these divergentstructures. Since there is no guidance for organizing storage structuresthe inventors have found that there are almost as many divergentknowledge storage structures as there are people.

Accordingly, a need existing for systems and methods of providing auniversal knowledge, information, and data store to simplify the processof storing and retrieving information and increasing personal andprofessional productivity and quality of life. As described herein, theinventors have discovered that such systems and methods based on thehuman thought process and the free enterprise model provide an efficientstorage structure.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a system for storing knowledge,information and data (KID). The system includes a plurality of sourcesof KID, at least one receiver (30) of KID from the plurality of sources,a universal knowledge, information and data store (UKIDS), and aninterface coupling the receiver and the UKIDS. The interface provides aplurality of logical partitions for storing KID within the UKIDS. Afirst level of the logical partitions segregates KID storage intopersonal and professional levels. A plurality of second personal levelsunder the first personal level segregate KID storage into a “teams ofpeople” subset, an “activities and organization” subset and an“organization and administration” subset. A plurality of secondprofessional levels under the first professional level segregate KIDstorage into a “clients” subset, an “output” subset, a “teams” subsetand an “administration” subset.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of the present invention will be betterunderstood when the Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodimentsgiven below is considered in conjunction with the figures provided,wherein:

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram representation of a conventionalinformation management system;

FIG. 2 illustrates a conventional data storage paradigm including aplurality of unconsolidated, divergent data stores;

FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram of an inventive informationmanagement including a universal knowledge, information and data store(UKIDS) configured and operating in accordance with one embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 4 is a simplified block diagram representation of logicalpartitions segregating knowledge, information and data stored within theinventive UKIDS;

FIGS. 5A and 5B are detailed diagrams of the logical partitions of FIG.4 in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a chart illustrating scalability and universality of theinventive information management system;

FIG. 7 depicts a graphical user interface, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention, for directly accessing the logicalpartitions of the UKIDS;

FIG. 8 depicts an electronic mail (email) message including aninformation targeting feature in accordance with one embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 9 depicts one embodiment of a summary direct deposit sheetdetailing automated delivery of knowledge, information and data to auser of the inventive information management system;

FIG. 10 depicts one embodiment of a security alert chart detailingtransaction activities of a subject user;

FIG. 11 depicts one embodiment of a client portion of a UKIDS includinga display of a client satisfaction measurement;

FIG. 12 is a simplified block diagram view of a physical storage silodisplaying various mechanisms guiding knowledge, information and datastorage in the silo in accordance with principles of the presentinvention;

FIG. 13 is a simplified flow chart comparison of conventional and oneembodiment of an inventive document and file manipulation methodologies;and

FIGS. 14A and 14B depict a simplified flow chart illustrating oneembodiment of a process flow for implementing the COTA system.

In these figures, like structures are assigned like reference numerals,but may not be referenced in the description for all figures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 3 depicts a simplified block diagram of one embodiment of aninformation management system 100 configured and operating in accordancewith the present invention for providing an interface 150 between thereceivers of information 30 and a universal knowledge, information anddata store (UKIDS) 160. In accordance with the present invention theUKIDS 160 includes the plurality of conventional data storage devices 40such as, for example, the filing cabinets 42 and the electronic records44 stored in files and database formats as well as a plurality oflogical partitions 200 for accessing information (as described below)within the UKIDS 160.

In one embodiment the interface 150 includes rules 152 and tools 154 (asdescribed herein) for configuring the UKIDS 160 and for storing andaccessing information in the UKIDS 160 in a standardized, easilyunderstandable and transferable manner. Briefly stated, the interface150 enables a structuring of conventional data storage devices into ahighly effective and universal library of cohesive knowledge (LOCK) thatspans storage platforms (e.g., physical and electronic storageplatforms).

As used herein, the term LOCK refers to a cohesive collection ofinformation in the form of documents, and portions thereof, that anindividual is responsible for creating, receiving, editing, storing,retrieving, and managing. Examples of such documents include computergenerated items such as word processing documents, spreadsheets, e-mail,web pages, links, etc., and “hard copy” documents such as regular mail,meeting handouts, brochures, documents printed by users, notes taken inmeetings, binders, books, CD ROM, forms, etc. Additionally, it should beappreciated that the term UKIDS is intended to broadly define a single,scalable, data management structure that is extended across virtuallyall data management platforms including, for example, computer harddrives, computer email archives, computer desktops, office desk tops,filing cabinets, bookshelves, and the like. In one embodiment, the rules152 include manual and/or computerized processes, standards andinstructions for storing knowledge, information and data within theUKIDS 160. In one embodiment, tools 154 include features and functionsfor presenting corporate news, internal and/or external advertising tousers, utilities to facilitate storage within specific locations withinthe UKIDS 160 (e.g., described below as a data targeting button), backupand archive utilities and a security and/or locking feature (e.g.,described below as a COTALOCK function).

In one embodiment of the present invention the interface 150 and theplurality of logical partitions 200 segregate the UKIDS 160 into a.multi-level scheme. As illustrated in FIGS. 4, 5A and 5B, a first level(Level 1) of the logical partitions 200 segregates information into“personal” and “business” information 210 and 220, respectively. Theinventors have discovered that the separation of personal andprofessional information eases transition of a UKIDS from one person toa next person as personal, and perhaps private, information is notmistakenly passed along. A second level under the first “personal”subset 210 segregates information into “teams of people” 212,“activities” 214 and “organization and administration” 216 storagesubsets. For example, in the “teams of people” subset 212 information isstored about family, friends, and the like. In the “activities” subset214 information is stored about vacations, sports, entertainment,spirituality, hobbies, and the like. In the “organization andadministration” subset 216 information is stored about home upkeep,bills and other financial concerns, and the like.

A second level (Level 2) under the first “business” level 220 segregatesinformation into “client” 230, “output” 250, “teams” 270, and“administration” 290 storage subsets. For example, in the “client” 230subset information is stored that pertains to philosophical groups ofinternal (within a company and/or organization) and external (outsidethe company and/or organization) clients, customers, patrons, consumers,constituents, client projects, markets, key vendors, sales territories,and the like. In the “output” subset 250 information is stored thatpertains to products, services, processes, value added products andservices, and any of the aforementioned offered/delivered to clients. Inthe “teams” subset 270 information is stored that pertains to groups,units, workforce, partnerships, collaborations, and any grouping ofindividuals that provide output to clients. In the “administration”subset 290 information is stored that pertains to the operation andcoordination of the business, business services, workflow, personnel orany non-core job responsibility.

It should be appreciated that the interface 150 provides rules (e.g.,the rules 152) for storing information within the logical partitions 200in both electronic (e.g., computerized folders and databases) andprinted formats (e.g., physical file folders and filing cabinets). Adetailed overview of the interface 150 and its relationship with theUKIDS 160 is provided below.

Overview

As described herein, the data management system 100, hereinafter theCOTA™ system 100 (COTA is a trademark of Cohesive Knowledge Solutions,Inc., Guilford, Conn.) provides a distinct structure, rules, layout, andcreation process. The COTA System 100 implements a UKIDS having:

(1) a universal knowledge, information and data storage taxonomy (e.g.,the logical partitions 200 of FIG. 4) modeled upon the human thoughtprocess and concepts of free enterprise wherein vocation knowledge,information and data (KID) is stored within one of the aforementioned“clients,” “output,” “teams,” and “administration” categories, COTAcategories 220, and non-vocational information is stored within one ofthe “teams of people,” “activities” and “organization andadministration” categories, TAO categories 210. The categories employedwithin the COTA system's 100 taxonomy 200 mirrors the human thoughtprocess of clustering and prioritizing KID. The prioritization reflectscore values of the free enterprise system wherein “clients” are assigneda top priority, “output” is provided by “teams”, and “administration”while necessary, is not emphasized, as it is a by-product of mostenterprises.

(2) the COTA system 100 taxonomy 200, while standardized, is flexiblesuch that the universal categories of storing KID adapt to theparticular needs of an industry, company, business unit, departmentwithin a company, group and/or team within a department, andindividuals. For example, “clients” of a company's Human Resourcesdepartment include other departments of the company such as the Salesdepartment, Accounting department and the like. On the other hand,“clients” of the Sales department include external customers of thecompany. The COTA system's 100 taxonomy 200 is applicable at each.

In addition to its universality, other attributes of the inventive COTAsystem 100 include transferability, extensibility and scalability. Bytransferability, the inventors are referring to the ease at which KID isshared across an organization. For example, when all employees of anorganization are using a universal storage methodology (e.g., the COTAsystem's 100 logical partitions 200) KID transfer is easier when:

(1) on-boarding—When a new employee arrives they can inherit a UKIDSthat can be easily understood, navigated and leveraged. For example, byreferring to the UKIDS COTA subsets 220 and, more particularly, the“clients” subset 230 clients of the organization are immediately visibleas is KID pertaining to the clients.

(2) information targeting—Currently, senders transmit information toreceivers who store information based on their judgment and their highlyindividualized storage systems. As a result, senders generally have alow level of confidence in the ability of receivers to accurately storeand leverage information sent. When all members of a team employ a UKIDSmembers can target information to each other because there is a greaterlevel of standardization. A UKIDS creates opportunities for senders tosuggest an actual location for the storage of important information.

The COTA system 100 is extensibility as it spans all data storageplatforms including computer hard drives (standalone and server based),backup and recovery media, off-line media such as, for example, zipdrives and the like, as well as hard copy storage systems such asbookcases, filing cabinets, desk tops, and the like. In effect, the COTAsystem 100 consolidates all KID storage into a single, centralrepository (e.g., the UKIDS 160).

As illustrated in FIG. 6, the COTA system 100 is scalable as it appliesglobally from an enterprise view down to an individual's view of theirCOTA categories. Accordingly, executives can develop a global,enterprise wide COTA model or shell 300. The enterprise COTA shell 300is based upon the organization's mission, charter, priorities, values,and goals. In other words, executives can identify a priority for“clients,” “outputs,” “teams,” and “administration” for the entireorganization. Selected KID can be stored by executives and/or otherapproved employees under each heading. The enterprise COTA shell 300 isthen passed throughout the enterprise's hierarchy to facilitate andimplement business planning. As described above, each level of anorganization can access the enterprise COTA shell 300 as well asindividual COTA shells such as a business unit COTA shell 310, divisionCOTA shell 320, departmental COTA shell 330, team COTA shell 340 andpersonal COTA shell 350. One perceived advantage of this facility isthat it is seen to add value to the “public folders” concept because itprovides an easily understood place for people to find groupinformation. This is seen to create a more coherent management process.For example, if an organization is shifting its focus towards a new ordifferent client base, this shift in focus can be identified under theenterprise COTA shell's 300 “client” category by the executive team.Similarly, the enterprise COTA shell's 300 “output” category detailsoutput and value added outputs offered by the organization. Theenterprise COTA shell's 300 “teams” category provides an organizationalchart for the entire company. The Teams category can include missionstatements, rosters, calendars, etc. for each major business unit,division, etc. The enterprise COTA shell's 300 “administration” categorycontains a variety of administration guidelines, forms, benefit outputs,etc. The scalability of the COTA concept insures that every employeetrained to use the COTA system 100 (from executive to associate)instantly understands the enterprise's mission, objectives, etc. and canlocate KID in a more efficient manner.

In addition to its universality, transferability, extensibility andscalability, another attribute of the inventive COTA system 100 is thatit promotes the creation of a virtual mentoring environment (VME) that:

(1) simplifies the pathways to KID and applications by reverseengineering the pathways from the human thought process;

(2) provides a clear set of guidelines (e.g., rules 152) and signposts(logical partitions 200) along the path;

(3) imparts a basic business values system that keeps all workers intouch with reality of business priorities set by the company (e.g.,enterprise wide COTA categories); and

(4) while providing individual guidance and letting each level of anorganization define and express its priorities (e.g., by maintainingdivisional, departmental and individual COTA categories), the VMEfocuses KID storage around the principles of given vocations. Forexample, the COTA system 100 is designed to recognize the fluidity bywhich people move in and out of job positions. While people move, theresponsibility of various jobs do not. With these responsibilities comesthe need to manage KID particular to a given job assignment. Therefore,the COTA system 100 emphasizes the importance of structuring andmanaging KID in a standardized manner at the job assignment level toensure the stability of KID as people move into and out of jobpositions.

FIG. 7 depicts one embodiment of the interface 150 represented as agraphical user interface shown generally at 400 and referred tohereinafter as a portal. The portal 400 leverages the COTA system's 100logical partitions 200 so that a user can navigate the TAO 210 and COTA220 subsets directly from the portal 400 to access KID stored in theUKIDS 160. In one embodiment, the portal 400 is launched from a user'spersonal computing device and provides access, via the TAO 210 and COTA220 subsets, to electronic KID residing not only within the user'spersonal computing device, corporate file server, etc., but also toIntranet and Internet KID. In effect, the portal 400 provides a singlecontext-based location that users can use to access electronic KID. Inone embodiment, Internet and Intranet KID is deposited directly into theCOTA system 100 such that users do not follow links to externalwebsites. As such, the KID is directly viewable from within the COTAsystem 100. In one embodiment, differing icons provide a visualrepresentation of the source of KID, e.g., whether it is a document thatwas previously stored by a user in the UKIDS 160, an Internet orIntranet document.

As described below, the portal 400 presents and/or provides a vehiclefor launching one or more of the tools 154 for invoking additionalfunctionality of the COTA system 100. For example, the inventorsenvision that use of the portal 400 will exceed traffic on every othercommunication medium available to an organization including Intranet,Internet, regular mail, etc., in part because employees spend so muchtime storing and retrieving KID. The portal 400 is designed forstrategic deployment by an organization to save money and time in thefollowing ways:

(1) tasks like benefits sign up are auto-facilitated through a screen onthe portal 400, for example, My Benefits 410 command for initiating anemployee benefit review at FIG. 7.

(2) employee specific data is downloaded into the COTA system's 100logical partitions 200 and users are notified via messages posted on theportal 400. A list of downloads can be made available at the click of amouse.

(3) links into the company's LOCK can be established at the portal 400facilitating a rapid retrieval and recovery of key forms and KID.

(4) the portal 400 can be positioned on the employee's computer desktopand could sort software applications in accordance with the COTA system100 function. This creates even greater visibility for advertisementsand announcements.

(5) the portal 400 can highlight urgent corporate announcements. Inother words, if there is an important on-line town meeting, it could beviewed through the portal 400 so that the employee need not operate anunfamiliar software system. This adds value to the web meeting functionand draws additional attention to the portal 400.

(6) when Intranet/Internet websites are designed they can be patternedafter the portal 400 to create a familiar and easy to navigate Intranetsite. The portal 400 provides a common visual layout for locatinginformation.

(7) the high cost of attaining employee shelf space could be reduced bypartitioning actual shelf space within the COTA system 100 structurewith back up reminders placed on the portal 400. Newsletters, email,posters, audio tapes, and binders could be replaced by a less expensiveCOTA category 200 data targeting delivery mechanism (described below).Notices of delivery can be posted on the portal 400.

(8) advertisers such as preferred corporate vendors could advertise (fora fee) to employees on the portal 400. For example, if the company getsa rebate from a large office supplies vendor for exceeding a certaindollar volume of orders, it may be important to continually informemployees NOT to go to more expensive local vendors but stay with thepreferred corporate vendor. Such a message (e.g., link 420 to a form)can be conveyed via the portal 400 at a cost savings to the corporationdue to volume rebate, special contract pricing, and possibly advertisingrevenues charged to the vendor. The portal 400 can trigger certainadvertisements and corporate announcements when a worker accesses aparticular form or portion of KID. If they have accessed an outdatedform, the COTA system 100 warns them that use of the form has beendiscontinued. When they access a benefits document, the COTA system 100triggers information or advertisements related to benefits. For example,project management software could be mentioned when new project foldersare created. The portal's 400 visibility to the COTA system's 100 TAOcategories 210 offers additional opportunities for advertising personalitems to employees. Other advertising could include, business unitmessages, i.e., information technology department instructions and acomputer fixes, human resource department policy changes, holiday cardor gift ordering from a preferred vendor, printable discounts toemployees offered by key area vendors (e.g., caterers, etc.), corporatesponsored charitable appeals, corporate seminars and trainingavailability, corporate team updates, video message from executivesregarding key events, etc.

(9) one or more locations accessible with the portal 400 can beconfigured to provide access only to approved personnel, e.g., sensitivecorporate or personal KID can be password protected.

While described above in terms of a graphical user interface, it shouldbe appreciated that the portal 400 should be interpreted broadly andtherefore may be implemented in other ways.

Rules of Operation

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, users of the COTA system 100, acting throughthe interface 150, employ a specialized set of rules 152 that define themethod for allocating KID within one of the COTA 220 and TAO 210categories. Exemplary rules of operation include the following.

1. Central Computer Repository Rule—Save all KID to the COTA system's100 UKIDS 160 under the TAO 210 and COTA 220 categories. When dealingwith electronic KID, some predefined software application storagelocation defaults should be overridden, e.g., MICROSOFT® WORD's “C: \MyDocuments\Word” default. The inventors have discovered that fewerstorage locations equates to greater ease of navigation and higherproductive.

2. Maximum Extensibility Rule—Extend the COTA 220 and TAO 210 categoriesto every storage platform. The logical partitions 200 span such storagestructures as computer hard drives, mainframe and file servers, Intranetand Internet websites, email applications, public folders, portableelectronic devices (PDAs), computer links, computer desktop, realdesktop, filing cabinet, CD ROM libraries, bookshelves, and the like.The goal is to implement one storage system.

3. Hierarchy Sortation Rule—Use the logical partitions 200, e.g., Level2 COTA 220 and TAO 210 categories, as a vertical sort to break tiesbetween KID (e.g., folders or documents) that could be placed in morethan one location. For example, a client widget proposal could be placedunder: (1) COTA/Clients/Client Name/Widget Proposal or (2)COTA/Output/Widgets/ClientName/Widget proposal. Under the COTA category220 hierarchy, option (1) is selected as “clients” 230 is a priorityover “output” 250 subsets (FIG. 5A).

4. The “General” Category Rule—When a document references more than one“client,” “output,” or “team” category, that document is placed in a“general” folder 232. This breaks the tie for items referencing morethan one category and makes retrieval easier by eliminating storage ofdocuments in repetitious subsets.

5. Strategic Labeling Rule—Label all KID documents, including out goingemail and email attachments, in the following fashion “Year-Month-ClearTitle.” For example, an email sent in May 2002 containing widget marketshare information should be labeled “00205 Widget Market Share May.”Label outgoing email titles using the COTA system 100 methodology suchthat receivers do not have to re-label the message when saving it. Labelhard copy documents either by hand or computer using the COTA system 100methodology. Preferably, hard copy documents are labeled on an edge thatis at the horizontal top of the document as the document is placed in afile folder. Labeling with bold magic marker is also preferred.

6. Prioritization Rule—Whenever confronted by an increasingly largenumber of hanging file folders (e.g., greater than fifteen (15)folders), high priority folders should be brought to the top of the sortby use of a numbering system. For example, “1. Big Customer” brings the“Big Customer” to the top of the folders. The inventors have discoveredthat the numerical assignment system assists relational database searchengines because they represent an additional layer of prioritization.

7. Maximum Availability Rule—Place the icons representing the COTAcategories 200 (e.g., TAO 210 and COTA 220 categories) on desktop andtime management program status bars (e.g., MICROSOFT® OUTLOOK shortcutsbar). Place the COTA system 100 guides, maps, and labels (as describedbelow) on filing cabinets, shelves and other paper data repositories.Doing so provides an intuitive and familiar pathway to locate KID.

8. Filtration/Needle in Haystack Rule—Any element within the COTA system100 UKIDS 160 that requires searching for one document or folder amongstgreater than twenty-five to fifty (25-50) options should be considered atarget for re-organization through sub-categorization. For example, ifyour computer desktop of list of computer links exceeds seventy (70)choices, reorganize it.

9. Purge Rule—Once a year, documents are separated into three groups: 1)Documents that are needed; 2) Documents that are probably not needed butare kept on hand; and 3) Documents that are not needed any longer. Underthe Purge rule, the first category is left alone, the second category isplaced into a storage folder marked storage documents from a previouscalendar year (e.g., 2002), and the third category is purged.

10. Personal Suitcase Rule—When an employee leaves a position, a copy oftheir TAO category 210 KID is moved to off-line storage (e.g., adiskette (s), zip drive, CD ROM, etc.) and then the TAO category itemsare deleted. The employee may take the TAO category 210 items to theirnext position and reinstall it in their new COTA system 100 UKIDS 160.

11. COTA Virtual Tour Rule—Before an employee leaves a current position,they give their successor a guided tour of the COTA system's 100 COTAcategory 220 items. Important KID is identified. If the successor doesnot know the COTA system 100 methodology, they are instructed in itsfeatures and functions by, for example, a COTA Mentor (described indetail below).

12. KID Targeting Rule—When sending a document or attachment that mightneed to be saved into the COTA system 100 UKIDS 160, a suggested storagelocation should be provided to recipients, e.g., “COTA, Output, Product2, Pricing” directs a recipient to store the document or attachment inthe “COTA” category 220, under the “output” subset 250, in a “Product 2”subset 252 and in a “Pricing” folder 254 (FIG. 4).

13. Filing Cabinet and Shelf Rules—File cabinets, shelves, CD ROMlibrary, etc. are arranged to reflect the COTA methodology's logicalpartitions 200 (e.g., TAO 210 and COTA 220 categories). Cabinet folderholder tags are placed on the left and label using, for example, magicmarker. As new documents are added, they are placed at the front of allfolders. Important forms are labeled with a horizontal label so they areeasily retrieved.

14. Hard Copy Filing Rules—Hard copy filing is viewed in a continuum,e.g., from receipt (at a mailbox, tradeshow, office, in box, create andprint, receive and print) to desktop, to filing cabinet or shelf, tolong term storage. Guidelines are established for when a document orbinder belongs in each location. All physical storage locations(cabinets, shelves, etc.) are labeled using the COTA system 100 logicalpartitions 200. Standards are established for how many folders are on aperson's desktop. Real and virtual desktops are not used as long termstorage silos.

15. Content Rule—Folder names should describe the contents of thefolder. They should not be named after software applications used tocreate them or documents stored in them, for example, a “Word” foldernamed after MICROSOFT® WORD. Documents should not be named after theperson that sent or created it, for example, names like “Boss'Directives” or “John's Stuff” are inappropriate. A folder named after asender creates additional locations for information and degrades theaccuracy of the data management system. Use content as a guide for allfolder names. For example, when storing a document ask “what (content)does this mean to me (context)?” The answer should be “this documentcontains information on my client “Client 1” that I may be able to useto close a sale next month”. Such an answer would guide storage under“client 1”. Answers that dictate location within a KID storage facilityshould not be “this is something that Dave sent me” or “this is aMICROSOFT® WORD document.”

16. Suspension of Rules—Suspension is acceptable only if a viable casecan be made. For example, a rare number of outdated software packagescurrently exists that may not be able to process a character space in adocument title. Another example might be to override the hierarchy atlevel 1 in order to assign a predominately administrative task thatvaguely references a Client (s).

17. QDOT—Quality Degradation Over Time Rule—When two potential storagesites for a single document exist, the quality of the storage systemdegrades over time. The rules of the COTA system 100 are designed tovirtually eliminate this possibility through sortation, filtration,prioritization, etc. However, vigilance is required to recognize andrepair QDOT situations that arise with long term usage of any system oforganization.

18. Email Commandments, ten (10) rules for quality improvement and ten(10) rules for quantity reduction and quality improvement. The quantityreduction commandments address a goal of reducing email volume by tenpercent (10%). The quantity reduction commandments include:

(1) Golden Rule—Only send what you would truly want to receive on a busyand exhausting day.

(2) Diversion—Use filters to eliminate junk mail. Create alternativeemail boxes to proactively divert junk mail.

(3) Limit Exponential Diffusion—Only use distribution lists, “CC,” andthe “Reply To All” command when absolutely necessary.

(4) Use the following COTA system 100 codes to reduce unnecessaryresponses:

-   -   NRN: No Reply Needed (e.g., I'm incredibly busy today)    -   NTN: No Thanks Needed (e.g., I'm incredibly busy today)    -   ELP: Extremely Low Priority (Open Later or Delete if busy)

(5) Elimination of serial jokesters and serial thankers will reduceoutput by 50-100%.

(6) Go “2 for 1” by combining e-mail messages to a particular recipientor group of recipients.

(7) End Death Spirals (infinite mega threads) by picking up the phone.

(8) Periodically review COTA system 100 email commandments with allteammates.

(9) Aggregate low priority, “FYI Only” messages. Instead, postinformation to public folders, bulletin boards (electronic or physical)or intranet sites.

(10) Take a team approach to email reduction. If a team improvestogether there will be more time for what matters most.

The inventors have discovered that a ten percent (10%) reduction inemail messages can eliminate eleven (11) continuous hours spentanswering email per year for an employee receiving fifty (50) messagesper day. For example, 50 email/day×5 days/week×52 weeks/year=13,000email messages/year; 13,000×30 seconds of time saved/message=390,000seconds saved; 390,000 seconds=108.3 hours/year answering email×10% timesaved=10.8 hours/year saved by following the aforementioned quantitycommandments per employee.

The quality improvement commandments address a goal of reducing emailvolume by twenty percent (20%). The quality improvement commandmentsinclude:

(1) Golden Rule—Only send a message if it would be important enough foryou to read on a busy and exhausting day.

(2) Clearly label and code the “subject line” of the email message asnoted below so that the recipient (s) know exactly what you need them todo:

AR Action Required ANR Action Not Required MITO Message In Title OnlyFYI For Your Information Only

(3) Send messages that are concise, short, simple, and easy to read.

(4) Highlight action steps or key points with two to four (2-4) bullets.

(5) When forwarding or replying, re-title and edit message for maximumclarity.

(6) COTA's Composition Rule—The time investment for composing a cohesiveemail message should grow with the number of receivers.

(7) Attachments—Avoid unnecessary attachments unless they are absolutelynecessary. Make sure that all attachments are clearly identified andordered to minimize evaluation time for recipients.

(8) Document Targeting: If the recipient(s) is using the COTA system,give them the destination path for important messages that must besaved.

(9) Use language that can be easily understood by all potentialreceivers.

(10) Include your contact information in auto signature to helpreceiver's respond to your message through phone, fax, or mail.

The inventors have discovered that a twenty percent (20%) reduction inemail messages can eliminate twenty-one and one half (21.5) continuoushours spent answering email per year for an employee receiving fifty(50) messages per day. For example, 50 email/day×5 days/week×52weeks/year=13,000 email messages/year; 13,000×30 seconds of timesaved/message=390,000 seconds saved; 390,000 seconds=108.3 hours/yearanswering email×20% time saved=21.66 hours/year saved by following theaforementioned quality commandments per employee.

Referring again to FIG. 3, users of the COTA system 100, use theinterface 150 to launch one or more tools 154 that access features ofthe COTA system 100. Exemplary tools 154 include the following.

1. COTA Map

The inventors have discovered that users often struggle to manageextremely large document libraries. The users have no way to guidethemselves and others to the appropriate location of information withintheir computers and offices. This increases the difficulty of findinginformation and on-boarding new employees.

The COTA system 100 leverages the COTA categories 200 to provide eithera hard copy or digital “map” describing the location of KID within theuser's UKIDS 160. The digital version is operated with the same nestedfile folder approach as the hard copy version.

A COTA Map is used to:

(1) Educate new users who inherit a UKIDS system.

(2) Remind the user where information is located on any storage silo.For example, the COTA Map placed on shelf reminds a user where bindersare located.

(3) Help the user transfer a UKIDS or storage structure to anotherstorage silo. For example, a hard drive structure may be transferred toa filing cabinet using a COTA Map to direct creation of folders andstorage of KID within the folders.

(4) The COTA Map process may include generation of labels and foldertabs, etc. for filing cabinets and shelves.

In effect, the COTA Map shows people where KID is and/or should bestored.

As described in detail below, the COTA Map of an entire UKIDS structureis stored in a computer file that can be downloaded to any portabledevice. The downloaded COTA Map is interactive and looks like the COTAportal 400. In one embodiment, the downloaded COTA Map is a hollow,interactive shell that does not contain actual documents. The user canpage through the downloaded COTA Map to find document locations so thatthey can be ordered via phone, fax, email, etc. from the host computersystem. In one embodiment, the downloaded COTA Map could contain all thedocument information but it is more likely that it will only contain thefile folders and document names. As noted above, this saves space onhand held devices.

2. Information Targeting

The inventors have observed that senders of KID find that their messagesfail to be utilized by their targeted receivers. In many cases,receivers fail to use the materials because they lose track of it orfail to understand its value. Most teams fail to develop guidelines forhow each member should structure their knowledge library. As a resultteam members cannot help each other location KID because they all use adifferent methodology for storage. In response to this challenge manysenders send even more messages to receivers, using the “more is better”reasoning. In reality, this reasoning creates more information for thereceivers to sort and store effectively and costs corporations asignificant expense.

The COTA system 100 provides a solution to this challenge by allowingsenders to target storage of KID in a specific location in thereceiver's knowledge library (e.g., logical partitions 200 of thereceivers' UKIDS 160). The COTA system 100 includes the followingoptions for sending and receiving KID is a targeted manner:

(1) Basic COTA Targeting: A sender predetermines an outgoing message orattachment's storage location within receivers' COTA categories 200 andinforms receivers where to store the item by specifying the destinationpath. For example, a manager sends a pricing sheet to his employees asan email attachment. He instructs them to store the pricing sheet under“COTA 2. Output—Widgets—Pricing.” He names the attachment “003 05 WidgetPricing 2003 Spring.” Now all of his employees have the message in theexact same location in their COTA categories 200.

(2) Semi-Automated Data Targeting (SADT)—SADT is a method of creating anemail that has saving instructions embedded in its metadata. Thereceiver presses a button 450 (FIG. 8) and the email message 460,attachment 470, or both the email message 460 and attachment 470 aresaved to sender designated path location specified by the sender withinthe receiver's COTA categories 200.

Information targeting is accomplished because the COTA system 100 userscan access one another's COTA maps. COTA maps are representations of auser's UKIDS storage system. That is, the COTA map provides visibilityto subsets within a user's COTA categories 200 but not the documentsstored in it. Users, Teams, and enterprises can control the level ofgranularity and visibility of an individual's COTA system 100 forsecurity and privacy purposes.

In the above email example, once the email message is drafted the sendersurfs the receiver's COTA map and selects an icon representing thepreferred storage location. The COTA system 100 embeds the selectedstorage pathway into the outgoing email message. When the receiver opensthe email message they have the option to store the document instantlyby clicking the data target receiver icon, e.g., the button 450, or theycan store the message and/or attachment manually.

It should be appreciated that a significant amount of time and energymay be saved utilizing basic COTA targeting or SADT.

Another KID targeting method employs COTA Direct Data TargetingSoftware. The Direct Targeting Software address situations whereinformation is sent to individuals who do not need to read the entiredocument until some future time. Examples include changes or updates ina team roster or product price, or a presentation sent by a speaker thateveryone wants to keep in file for future reference. This informationmay not be needed until some future time. The COTA Direct Data TargetingSoftware sends information directly into one of the COTA categories 200of one or more receivers.

Senders have an option of alerting or not alerting the receivers thatKID was direct deposited. In one embodiment, the COTA Direct DataTargeting Software provides receivers of such delivered KID a SummaryDirect Deposit Sheet 480 (FIG. 9). The Summary Sheet 480 is sent for allitems that have been direct deposited into a user's COTA categories 200over a set period of time (e.g., days, hours, etc.). In one embodiment,the COTA Direct Data Targeting Software provides a receipt for sendersproviding a confirmation of the percentage of KID that reach one or morereceiver's COTA categories 200. The receipt includes, for example, namesof users who, for whatever reason, did not successfully store theinformation in the pre-set location. Such a success receipt is a helpfultool. For example, in the event that important legal information needsto be delivered to employees, COTA Data Targeting could improve theaccuracy of the transmission beyond simply sending information. Itelevates accuracy to a level of providing feedback that information wasactually sent, received and stored.

When the COTA system 100 is employed in multiple companies inter-companydata targeting is possible. Targeting requires that the companies sharetarget file pathways to ensure accurate delivery of information. Forexample, a request for quotation is sent from a first company to othercompanies using the COTA system 100 and the request includes an embeddedreturn address location within the sender's COTA system 100. A COTAReturn Feature allows a sender to guide information back to a particularlocation for batch processing or future use. The Data targeting featurecan be used with clients, vendors, and anyone who needs to quickly andaccurately transmit information to another entity.

3. COTA Mentor

Many in the Information Technology industry propose development ofinformation “agents” that function act as on-board computer assistants.It is thought that the agent could “learn” a user's needs and use thatinformation to help them with their work. The inventors have noted anumber of perceived deficiencies in current development of agents. Forexample, the inventors have discovered that structural changes areneeded to how information is stored before an effective agent theory canbe developed. Accordingly, the inventors have developed the COTA system100 to operate within a Virtual Mentoring Environment (VME), asdescribed above. The VME provides an intuitive structure that addressesthe complete KID management within our personal and professional lives.Importantly, the VME includes a COTA Mentor function developed accordingto the following principles.

The COTA Mentor is based upon a teacher model rather than being basedupon a student model, as are conventional software agents. The COTAMentor is vocation and team focused as it is designed around a job orteam. As a teacher, the COTA Mentor assists in the on-boarding of anewly promoted or hired individual by taking them on a tour of their newCOTA system 100 and COTA categories 200 with an emphasis on job specificKID and priorities. The COTA Mentor guides a user to work on priorityitems (as identified from the COTA categories). For example, byaccessing document usage statistics the COTA Mentor exhibits the mostrecently document to highlight immediate priorities and knowledge neededfor a successful transition from a former to a new employee.

In one embodiment, the COTA Mentor “observes” the user and notes whenthey “back out” of a particular document or file search. Back outs mayrepresent occurrences when the user is not sure of the location of KID.They retrieve it only to discover that it is not the desiredinformation. The COTA Mentor notes such back out occurrences as frequentback outs may be shared with the user as potential areas forrestructuring or clarification. The COTA Mentor may bring suchinformation to a user's attention at a periodic timetable (e.g.,monthly, quarterly, etc.). As such time, the COTA Mentor may also ask ifthe user requires assistance restructuring their COTA categories 400.The COTA Mentor assists applying the COTA rule set, re-titling KID,re-positioning KID within the COTA categories 200, etc.

The COTA Mentor studies and notes storage pathways based upon alldocuments' key words, sender, creator, department, divisionalinformation, etc. The COTA Mentor analyzes the user's storagemethodology over time and begins to make suggestions based on a crossreference of the above information/meta data and the user's COTA system100. For example, an email from a corporate purchasing agent requestinga proposal on widgets would alert the COTA Mentor of the following:

(1) The sender is a client of the receiver.

(2) A key word search of the title and text indicates that the contentrefers to “widgets” and “proposals”.

(3) A cross reference to the receiver's COTA categories reveals amatching folder, e.g., “COTA/1. Clients-GM-Widget Project-Proposals.”

(4) A secondary scan of the actual content of the document reveals aclose match between the incoming document and other documents in thereceiver's “GM Widget Projects—Proposals” folders.

(5) Previous correspondence from this sender have been placed in aparticular place by the user.

(6) Before the user is done reading the first sentence of the email, theCOTA Mentor offers several optional storage locations for the user'sconsideration.

(7) The user simply selects on the option that best represents where thedocument should be stored and the COTA Mentor places the document inthat location. This automated process is seen to improve the accuracy ofstorage while reducing the cognitive chore of determining where a fileshould be located for future use. For example, many people store filesthat relate to both a “client” and “output” subset only in the “output”subset. The COTA Mentor employs the COTA methodologies to locate such adocument under the “client” subset every time based in the inheritpriority scheme of the COTA system 100. The chart below shows oneversion of how the COTA Agent Target Options can be proffered to theuser.

In one embodiment, the COTA Mentor periodically sweeps a user's LOCK(e.g., the COTA categories 200) and locates redundant files. It alertsthe user of the redundancies and the user can make a choice ofelimination or retention. An example of KID that may by its nature leadto redundancies is a team roster that is perpetually updated. The usermay be saving a new file containing the roster every time once ispublished and neglecting to delete the old file. The COTA Mentor canhelp the user by identifying these files and assigning them apredetermined designation. In one embodiment, the COTA system 100includes a KID designation as COTA Perpetual Files. Outdated versions ofCOTA Perpetual files are automatically deleted when a user saves a newerversion.

The COTA Mentor observes all incoming and outgoing COTA KID Targetingand offers optional storage locations to the user. In one embodiment,the options are presented in an intrusive way that does not demand aresponse from the user, e.g., the options are displayed in a blank partof the user's computer screen.

The COTA Mentor observes incoming KID from targeting and emailcorrespondence, notes which of the KID is being deleted without beingopened and creates a suggested filtration list for the user's approval.An optional Filtration Summary Sheet provides the user with a quickoverview of deleted messages on a periodic basis. This reduces theamount of junk mail coming to the user.

The COTA Mentor assists the user in the configuration of their office byproviding computer modeling software for the placement and arrangementof all COTA materials in the physical office environment.

The COTA Mentor observes time management software and createsappropriate links when commanded by the user. For example, the user mayhave a “Widget Presentation to GM” event schedule for a predetermineddate and time. The COTA Mentor can build hyperlinks to a certainposition within the user's COTA categories that makes related files anddocuments accessible to the user on or around the time of thepresentation. When the user opens the date in the time managementsystem, they simply see a single, master file folder named, for example,“GM Widgets Proposal.” The folder contains all of the sub folders anddocuments within the user's COTA system related to the GM widgets. Asimilar process can be used to hyperlink tasks, notes, contactinformation, etc. into the COTA system 100.

The COTA Mentor helps a user build their COTA Profile over time. TheCOTA Mentor offers menus that allow the user to document “who they are”and “what they need” to such systems as, for example, external andinternal search engines. The COTA Mentor assists in building a profilethat describes the vocational and personal “DNA” of the searcher. Asnoted below, this allows search engines to function more efficientlybecause they now understand “who is searching for what.”

The COTA Mentor surveys user to uncover training, research, quality oflife and communication needs. The survey is optional. If a userindicates that they are considering buying a house in two (2) months,the COTA Mentor may surf the Intranet/Internet through the COTA Locator(described below) and provide the user with optional files for reviewof, for example, current mortgage literature. The information can bedirect deposited into the TAO subset 210 of the COTA categories 200(e.g., “TAO/3. Org. and Admin.—New Home Purchase—Agent MortgageResearch”). The user is then freed from the burden of searching andfiltering information. They can simply check the file when they havetime before initiating a labor-intensive search. COTA Mentor can querythe user to further define the desired information.

The COTA Mentor is designed to be integrated into future computertechnology. It isn't designed to be intrusive or demanding of the user'stime and patience. All features of COTA Mentor can be modified by userat any time.

4. Power Added Folders

In one embodiment the COTA categories 200 include a number of universalsubfolders that are preloaded within the UKIDS 160. Exemplarysub-folders include:

(1) General categories folder: A General categories folder addresses theissue of placing information that pertains to several items into onlyone subset. For example, a salesperson who receives a report on fifteen(15) of his clients may not know where to place the document, e.g.,should it be placed in one or all of the client folders. The Generalaccepts the document and removes the problem.

(2) Success Folder—Folder found under the COTA subset 220 “4. Admin.”Category to catalog examples of employees' major successes. This folderaggregates accolades that motivate and qualify employees for futureadvancement. It allows employees to focus on behaviors that led to keysuccesses.

(3) Form Library Folder—This folder includes all blank forms. Someemployees accumulate large numbers of blank forms. The inventors havediscovered that aggregating blank forms in one place is extremelyhelpful. The Forms Library folder can be populated or pre-populated withany blank forms that a team requires. Example forms include facsimilecoversheets, memos, order entry forms, agenda forms, action item forms,etc.

(4) Competition Folders—Competition folders are created for all knowncompetitive products. The folders are placed under the “output” subsetof the COTA system's 100 UKIDS 160 next to the enterprise's directlycompeting products. For example, in a COTA system 100 for McDonald'sCorporation under “Output—BigMac” COTA category 220 there would be a“Whopper Competitive” folder with information on Burger KingCorporation's WHOPPER®. This provides a designated place for competitiveinformation.

It should be appreciated that other Power Added Folders for variousbusiness units can be strategically placed into a UKIDS 160.Additionally, most powerful power added folders have multiple levels orlayers of folders and documents. These folders can be constructed by thegroup, by the leader of the group, by other business units or evenpeople from other companies. They can be copied and pasted wheneverthere is a new “client,” “product,” “team,” “training program,” etc.

5. COTA Shell and Template Builders

A COTA Shell Builder delivers a series of queries regarding the COTA 220and TAO 210 subsets. In response to the queries, a user enterssub-folder titles and characteristics that the COTA Shell Builder usesto create the COTA categories 200 for a particular user. In oneembodiment, queries by the COTA Shell Builder include a request to theuser to list and prioritize “clients,” “output,” “teams,” and“administration” items. For some categories such as, for example,administration, the user can select from a series of predefined itemssuch as “company car,” “travel and expense report,” “training,”“Information technology,” etc. This selection process builds thesubfolders within the COTA categories 200 for the user. The user cancreate a hierarchy of “clients,” “output,” “teams,” and “administration”categories. This helps the user place what matters most at the top ofeach filing category.

Similarly, the COTA Template Builder software assists the user increating uniform sub-folder categories and embedded documents. Byreplicating the template, the user insures that everyone on a particularteam has an exact same folder structure for a particular type of folder.For example, if a sales team has one hundred (100) different clients,each client folder may have copies of invoices and proposals. The COTATemplate Builder creates a “New Client Folder” template with sub-folders“1. Proposals” and “2. Invoices.” Whenever a user adds a client theysimply copy and paste the “New Client Folder” template. Thisfunctionality, when used within the strategic framework of a UKIDS 160,allows a team to reach unprecedented levels of quality control ininformation management. The COTA Template Builder software is seen to bethe first software designed to assist the user through a series ofqueries and educational prompts in the construction of high qualitytemplates with a software infrastructure or UKIDS. Use of the COTATemplate Builder software drives the LOCK system to a higher degree ofstandardization while providing the user with a familiar structure toreview.

6. COTA Search Engine

Conventional Internet search engines take key word(s) requests andsearch for the key word(s) in content on the Internet. Search enginestypically take into account how often the key word(s) are repeated incontent and apply a ranking such that content with more occurrences ofthe key word(s) are given a higher rank. One perceived limitation ofconventional search engines is that they do not make associationsbetween key words and topics the way that the human mind can. As aresult, requested queries yield either thousands of responses, when keyword(s) are too broad, or no responses, when key word(s) are too narrow.An additional factor complicating searches is that persons requestingsearches and persons storing Internet content use a wide variety ofwords to express a similar notation, e.g., “soda” to one person might be“pop” to another.

The inventors have discovered that the COTA system 100 and, inparticular, the COTA categories 200 can be leveraged to improveconventional search engine technology. The inventors have realized thatpeople search for content within the context of either theirprofessional and personal lives. The inventors have discovered that byintroducing the context of a search and information about the personsearching for content, search results can be dramatically improved. Asdescribed herein, the COTA categories 200 are levered to provide thisadditional contextual information. The following example illustrates howthe COTA categories 200 are levered in this inventive way.

Imagine going to a local public library and saying to a referencelibrarian “windows, architecture, search.” The first response you wouldlikely receive from the librarian would probably be “please explain whyyou needed the information” and “who are you” (e.g., a student, computertechnician, chief executive officer, builder or homeowner, etc.). Inessence, the librarian is looking for a contextual understanding of whatyou need to find. As described herein, the COTA system 100 is a contextand content driven system designed to reflect the full expanse of KID inan individual's life. Therefore, initiating a search through a COTAsystem interface improves the accuracy of the search process.

For example, suppose that three (3) people invoke an Internet search forcontent using key words: “windows” and “architecture.” Also assume thata first individual is a software engineer who is searching forinformation on Microsoft Corporation's WINDOWS® software architecture, asecond individual is an executive at a construction company who issearching for information on wholesale windows that meet certainarchitecture forms of upcoming projects, and a third person is ahomeowner who is researching retail windows for various types of houses.Using conventional search engines, all three people are likely to getsimilar results using the above-defined key words.

In accordance with the present invention, the COTA categories 200 aretraversed and levered such that contextual information is automaticallyincluded within the search request. That is, the particular user uses aCOTA Locator feature to navigate the COTA categories 200 and “perch”themselves within a contextual location that applies to the search, forexample, a location in which results of the search are likely to bestored. Once located in this manner, the Internet search engine isinvoked. For example, in the homeowner example, the homeowner invokesthe COTA Locator function and navigates the TAO subset 210 to a folder“5. TAO Organization and Admin—Home—New Construction project.” From thisperch, the homeowner invokes a search engine and requests a search usingthe key words “windows” and “architecture.” The COTA Locator supplementsthe key word search by providing contextual information based upon a“homeowner searching for retail windows for a home constructionproject.” As can be appreciated, more accurate search results should beuncovered.

On the other hand, results will differ for the software engineer becausethe COTA Locator function is used to navigate to a different subsetwithin the COTA categories 200. For example, the software engineer usesthe COTA Locator to navigate to the COTA subset 220 to a “3.Output—Utilities—Windows Office Suite” folder. Once positioned, thesoftware engineer invokes the “windows” and “architecture” key wordsearch. This time the COTA Locator supplements the search withcontextual information based on a “professional software engineersearching for information regarding a software tool used by theengineer.” In the third example, the construction executive would invokethe COTA Locator and navigate the COTA subset 220 to a “3.Output—Windows—Pricing” folder. Once positioned, the executive invokesthe “windows” and “architecture” key word search. The COTA Locatorsupplements the search with contextual information based on a“professional builder searching for information regarding wholesaleprices of materials for a construction project.”

As the above examples illustrate, the COTA Locator represents a moremeaningful and accurate search. In one embodiment, the COTA system 100defines a user profile (e.g., the COTA Profile as described above withinthe context of the COTA Mentor) that may also be utilized by the COTALocator to supplement searches. For example, the COTA system 100 mayinitially query users asking them to provide information for theprofile. Exemplary questions include, for example, “describe your job,”“select your activities from the following menu,” etc. These initialqueries are added to the COTA Locator key word search to create a morecontextual search process.

Another example of the functionality of COTA Locator follows. Asalesperson is working on a “widget” project with a client, GeneralEnterprises, Inc. (GE). The salesperson may search the COTA categories200 for information regarding pricing of GE's widget by navigating to asub folder “1. Clients—GE—Widgets—Pricing.” However, if the salespersonwants to search the Internet for the pricing information relating toGE's widgets the salesperson invokes the COTA Locator. The COTA Locatoruses the same pathway (e.g., perches on “1. Client—GE—Widgets—Pricing”)to supplement the search engine.

As illustrated herein, each navigation step through the COTA categories200 denotes a key word that the COTA Locator supplements key word searchrequests invoked by a user. The COTA Locator determines relevant keywords as follows. For the “1. Clients—GE—Widgets—Pricing” search, theCOTA Locator parses the navigation path and from “1. Clients—GE”determines that a search relating to an external client named “GE” isbeing performed. The “Widgets” subset prompts the COTA Locator to focuson a particular product within the GE product line. From the “Pricing”subset the COTA Locator determines that a particular aspect of GE'swidgets is being searched. In one embodiment, while the user isnavigating the COTA categories a COTA Locator Icon can be selected toadd additional key words to the search.

It should be appreciated that the COTA Locator uses a self-referentialcoding scheme for determining key. Each of the subsets within the COTAcategories 200 can be a key word that ensures an Internet search enginereceives consistent input. Consistency in the coding scheme ismaintained in the following ways:

(1) Context: The input arrives with metadata based on the user's jobdescription (e.g., COTA subsets 220) or their personal life (TAO subsets210).

(2) Content: The content of the search is consistent because the user issearching from the perspective of their job or personal life. Typically,the content of a person's job or personal life does not radically changefrom day to day so the accuracy of search techniques actually increasesover time. The COTA Locator also eliminates a huge number of uselesshits by telling the search engine what it is not looking for. Aprofessional query is clearly not a personal query. A request forpricing on widgets is not a request for a white paper or bookadvertisement on how to make multi-colored widgets. Additionally, byleveraging the COTA category structure, contextual content is deliveredin the same sequence because the process of navigating to a particulararea of interest is always the same pathway moving from universal COTAfolders (e.g., Level 1 and Level 2) to more specific folders (e.g.,Level 3, Level 4, etc.). The inherit priority scheme utilized by theCOTA system 100 (clients, output, teams, administration) also allows thesearch engine to know what matters most to the searcher.

The inventors have discovered that the COTA Locator increases theaccuracy of conventional search engines. The following process flowdemonstrates this proposition. A COTA Locator search process includes,for example:

(1) The user needs information.

(2) The user navigates their COTA categories to the place in either theCOTA subset 220 or TAO subset 210 where they would normally keep thisinformation. If the information has not already been stored as adocument or link, the user may select, for example, a Net Search Buttonon the portal 400. A choice is provided whether an Intranet or Internetsearch is requested.

(3) They can add in key words at this point to make the search moreaccurate.

(4) The COTA Locator analyzes the COTA categories 200 to gain acontextual idea of who the searcher is. For example, if the personrequesting the search is the chief executive officer (CEO) of The HomeDepot searching for windows product information, COTA Locator directsthe search engine to return different results than would be provided tothe CEO of Microsoft Corporation. As described above, the search resultsshould be different because the context is different.

(5) The COTA Locator analyzes the specific pathway navigated for thesequence and priority of key words as represented by the COTA subsetsand folder titles.

(6) The COTA Locator invokes a search and provides matching results.

(7) The user can open and save results to the exact same location fromwhich they invoked the query. Since they have already navigated to thatlocation they will have a great opportunity to conveniently save thedocument correctly.

As can be seen from the above description, searching with the COTALocator function differs markedly from existing search engines whichoperate independently from current office software platforms. While someintegration exists, the COTA Locator provides an additional layer ofcontent based, contextual searching. As such, searching with the COTALocator is more accurate and helpful than current search engines.

It should be appreciate that the COTA Locator performs personal searchesjust as well professional searching. For example, an avid wine drinkermay invoke a personal search from the TAO subset 210 for a qualityrestaurant. The user use the COTA Locator to navigate the user's TAOsubset 210 for a “5. TAO—Activities—Wine Information” folder.Restaurants with a reputation for excellent wine cellars could belocated and brought to the top of search results. The sensation to theuser is that products and information of contextual importance aredelivered more frequently by the COTA Locator. COTA Locator makes usersfeel that an Internet store front has magically pushed items of interestto the front of the queue based upon an understanding of the users COTAcategories 200.

The following highlights some differences between conventional searchprocesses and searching with the COTA Locator:

(1) Adds Context to search—Example: Personal vs. Professional searches.Personal searches are more retail focused while professionals areusually searching for wholesale/industrial information. A person who isbooking corporate meetings at vacations resorts is a very differentsearcher than a couple going on a personal vacation. The COTA Locatorallows enterprises to contour their responses to the context of theuser's search initiation point. So a search is initiated through theCOTA subsets 220 (vocational) or TAO subsets 210 (personal) brings updifferent results with the same key words.

(2) The COTA Locator adds unspecified search information—If a user issearching through their TAO subsets 210 for a vacation spot they mightnot mention that they like certain activities, e.g., golf and wine. TheCOTA Locator can add those interests into the search by quickly scanninga titles within a “5. TAO—Activities” folder. This produces a moretargeted listing of vacations spots for the user.

(3) Saves Time—A user might want to find the websites for alltwenty-five (25) of his clients. In the current system, the only way todo that is to search all twenty-five client names with a key word searchthat might look like this: “General Motors, Website.” In the COTALocator the user would simply click on “1. Clients” and enter a key wordrequest for “websites.” The COTA Locator returns a complete listing ofall website links of the users twenty-five client.

(4) Enterprise Benefits. Since the COTA system 100 is a known andstandard structure, a team or enterprise could also collect a list ofall clients, for example, and create a corporate wide bank of clientwebsites.

(5) Intranet Site Construction Benefits—Intranet sites could be set upto anticipate internal queries through the COTA Locator. If “widgetsales per territory” information is updated on a monthly basis but notdownloaded to user computers, then the user could simply navigate to apredetermined folder under “Clients—General Clients—Widget Sales byTerritory” and select the COTA Locator button in order to open thedocument.

(6) The COTA Profiler is an optional survey tool that supplements theCOTA Locator by indicating information about the searcher that impactssearches. For example, parental blocks, interests, job description,“Clients,” “Output,” “Team,” and “Admin” characteristics can all beloaded to create a richer and complementary contextual picture of theuser.

(7) The COTA Locator can be leveraged by any enterprise seeking toconnect with customers because it can allow retailers to bringinformation and products relative to the searcher to the front of theirvirtual store. Pop menus, while extremely annoying will not be asannoying if they reflect the true needs of the user.

7. Portal Subscribe

Marketers have been relatively unsuccessful at getting users to“subscribe” to automatic delivery of content over the Internet. Theinventors have discovered that this lack of interest may be related toproblems in the delivery of information, for example:

(1) People are already receiving too much information so it isunderstandable that they would not want to receive vast quantities ofnew information in a random fashion.

(2) The free ranging aspect of Internet delivery contradicts the ideathat users will be happy with a handful of pre-established communication“channels,” the delivery medium of chose in, for example, MicrosoftCorporation's WINDOWS® environment.

(3) Users lack a reliable system of selecting and storing Internetcontent.

The COTA system 100 provides a solution to increasing automated deliveryof content. A COTA Subscribe software leverages the COTA Portal 400approach. When a user surfs to an Internet site they are prompted by theCOTA Subscribe module to see if they want to subscribe and automaticallyreceive information from the site. The user is prompted to narrow thetype of information proffered by the site. The subscription can belimited by topic, amount of information or particular author. Thisallows the user to feel comfortable that they won't be overloaded withinformation. When new information appears at that site that matches theuser's selected interest, they receive a summary sheet. The user canselect (e.g., check off) items that they want to receive or mark theitem for deletion. Items that they want to receive will be directdeposited to their COTA categories 200 (e.g., using KID Targeting asdescribed herein). The user also has the option of opening a particularpiece of information and reviewing it before permitting download. Thisbatch processing approach saves the user time and gives them the finalsay on what gets added to their COTA categories 200. In one embodiment,the user can select downloading of a link or actually the content.Either way, when the user needs the information they simply locate theposition of the information within the COTA categories and extract it.To avoid a seemingly constant stream of data, the user can specify anumber of items that must accrue before a summary deposit sheet iscreated or specify a predetermined time period for downloads (e.g.,nightly, weekly, etc.).

8. COTA Locate and Leverage

Document and file manipulation typically includes actions such asopening, closing, saving, editing, copying, pasting, inserting,deleting, creating shortcuts, opening net links, and like operations.Document and file manipulation within conventional software applicationgenerally involves a number of tasks. Before invoking document and filemanipulation operations a sequence of events must be completed such, forexample:

(1) Locate Application Silo—If a user wants to locate a particulardocument they must first remember the type of software application theyused to create and/or store the document. As described in the BackgroundSection of this document, applications typically store documents inpredetermined data storage silos. For example, they may wonder if theysaved an email attachment to their hard drive (e.g., “C: \My Documents”directory) or to an email hanging file folder.

(2) Designate Function—Once the data silo is located the user designatesthe desired operations, e.g., whether they want to insert, save, copy,etc. information. The user generally traverses a function menu to invokea desired operation.

(3) Recall Sortation Scheme—Once the Application Silo and function aredetermined the user recalls and negotiates the sortation methodology,e.g., how they set up their folders and documents. For example, ifdocuments are stored in alphabetical order, the user must remember nameof the file since a file named “Anvils vs. Widgets” is in a differentplace than a file named “Widgets vs. Anvils.”

(4) Navigation—Once the user recalls the sortation scheme, they navigateto the document location. In the event that they are saving a document,they navigate to the preferred target spot.

(5) Execution—The user finally selects the desired function from, forexample, a menu or by selecting an icon or function button.

(6) Optional Step—Remove Redundant Document—If the user is in an emailmessage that is being saved to hard disk (e.g., the “C:\My Documents”folder), the user may have to go back to the source message and deleteit.

The above-described methodology presents problems in that users mustnavigate a variety of different menus and options in order to manipulatedocuments. This places a cognitive and physical barrier between the userand their information. As illustrated in FIG. 13, the COTA system 100provides an alternative document and file manipulation methodology. Theconventional process, shown generally at 700 and described above, can besummarized as: (1) Locate storage silo 702, (2) Determine and initiatefunction process 704 (e.g., insert), (3) Determine sortation scheme andnavigate to document 706, and (4) Make redundant function command 708.

The COTA system 100 can run in the above-described manner or in a Locateand Leverage document manipulation process outlined below andillustrated in FIG. 13 generally at 750. The Locate and Leverage processincludes a two-step: (1) Locate 752—Regardless of the manipulationfunction the user wishes to invoke, the user navigates directly into theCOTA categories 200 of the UKIDS 160 to immediately locate the desireddocument, and (2) Leverage 754—Once the user reaches the preferreddocument position, they select the function from a document/filemanipulation command menu that includes, for example: “save,” “save as,”“insert,” “copy,” “open,” “print,” “send to,” “shortcut,” “save link,”etc.

In one embodiment, when saving a document the COTA system 100automatically time stamps the document. If the document is being savedfor the first time, the COTA system 100 asks if the user wants to renameor re-label the document for greater clarity.

With COTA Locate and Leverage 750 redundancies are eliminated becauseusers only need to select functions once. No longer will the userselect, for example, “Insert File” and then have to hit a redundantinsert button at the end of the process. The COTA system 100 allows theuser to simplify and standardize the “Locate” process and it simplifies,standardizes and shortens the “Leverage” process. As illustrated in FIG.13, the Locate and Leverage 750 process is a simple two-step functionversus vs. the conventional four-five step process.

In one embodiment, the COTA system 100 includes an inventivefile/document naming scheme. When saving a file/document to a targetedlocation, the COTA system 100 creates a highlighted “target” positionthat allows the user to save into a particular numeric place. Forexample, if the user is saving a file folder for a new Client that is tobecome their new third priority client, the COTA system allows the userto save the folder to the target location and automatically re-numberall of other folders in a next higher numeric sequence (e.g., old thirdbecomes fourth, old fourth becomes fifth, etc.). This encourages usersto use a priority-based system versus an alphabetical system. Inconventional file/document management systems, users would have toselect and renumber all subsequent client folders. In one embodiment,the COTA system 100 allows users to toggle between alpha, temporal, andnumeric sortation schemes. Users can also use a hybrid sortation scheme.This is useful when the user wants to concentrate on a limited number ofhigh priority accounts, e.g., a first ten accounts can be numbered inorder of importance and the remaining thirty accounts can be ordered inalphabetical order. This provides a means of lifting what matters mostto the user to the top of the sortation page. The inventors have foundthis a valuable tool for users managing large streams of documents.

9. COTA Business Planning Software

The inventors have observed that enterprises spend millions of dollarsdeveloping business plans but employees find it difficult to keep trackof all of the tactics, strategies, goals, objectives, etc. contained inthe plan. Many business plans are created with the best intentions butare rarely referred to on a regular basis. A recent study by FranklinCovey indicated that less than thirty percent (30%) of employees knowtheir enterprise's key goals and objectives. Most are unaware of thespecific tactics and timelines outlined in the enterprises' businessplans. This is also true of business plans that are accessed on aseparate website. Users find it cumbersome to surf to a differentlocation, remember a different password, negotiate a differentstructure, and operate a different software function to access basicbusiness plan information. As a result, the best business plans oftenfail to be used and implemented.

The COTA system 100 provides a solution including its own business planmodule. A COTA business plan represents a complete departure frombusiness plans that are stored as documents or accessed through sharedworking spaces such as websites. The COTA business plan leverages theCOTA categories 200 and system 100. At the beginning of each businessplan cycle, a user invokes the COTA business plan module for example, byselecting a desktop icon called COTA Plan. The COTA business plansoftware opens up an exact replica of the user's COTA categories 200.Since the COTA categories 200 already represent a hierarchy ofimportance, the categories underscore business imperatives. The userstarts with a review summary of the executive business plan, corporatemission statement, and vision statement, within the context of the COTAcategories 200. Next, the user is prompted to update the prioritizationof all COTA categories 200 starting with “1. Clients.” The user canselect and drag their “Clients” subset into any priority order that isappropriate. The COTA business planning software changes prioritizationof all subsequent folders. The user is prompted to focus on apredetermined percentage of their client base as a priority. If the userhas sub-groups within clients the user is prompted to create prioritieswithin each sub group by selecting and dragging the accounts that mattermost to the top of the list. Once the user has selected the top priorityclients, they are prompted to enter specific goals, strategies, andtactics that they hope to achieve with that priority client within aspecified time period. General client strategies may also be completed.This data entry occurs in a replica of their COTA categories 200. Whenthey select a particular client folder instead of seeing all of the KIDthat is normally stored in COTA subset, data entry screens open up. Theusers complete convenient standard electronic forms requesting typicalbusiness plan information. Enterprises can customize and/or populateelectronic forms. Goals, strategies, tactics, etc. are set up withdeadlines and milestones. Once a timeline is set up, the COTA businessplan software automatically passes key tactical times into theenterprise's time management software for tracking. Next the user movesto the “output” subset. “Products,” “services,” “value added productsand services” are prioritized in a similar manner as described for the“clients.” Again, the user is prompted to document goals, strategies,and objectives for priority output. Just as the COTA categories 200determine a hierarchy for storing KID, the COTA business plan softwareuses the categories 200 as a filter. For example, any informationalready explained in the “client” subset need not be re-explained in the“output” subset. So the “output” subset contains overall goals forproducts and services, and the user's plan to become more knowledgeableabout a particular product or service, etc. The same process is repeatedfor the “teams” and “administration” subsets. What “teams” matter mostin the coming year? What will the user try to accomplish on each team.Will they take on a new project or leadership role? How the user willbecome more organized is covered under the “administration” subset. Whatprocesses the user will seek to streamline?

The user can designate shared goals if they are on a team. A team cancomplete the COTA plan together, if appropriate.

Once completed, the user presses an icon and the business plan embedsitself in the COTA system 100 in two ways.

(1) A special business plan icon appears at the top of each relevantfolder. For example, if CLIENT 1 is the user's top priority account, thesoftware moves CLIENT 1 to the position as follows:

-   -   1. Clients        -   CLIENT 1        -   *CLIENT 1 Business Plan Objectives        -   Project Folder 1        -   Project Folder 2        -   . . .        -   CLIENT 2        -   Etc.

The asterisk connotes a unique business plan icon. Within that folder,the CLIENT 1 objectives, strategies, and tactics are placed. The usercan look up their business planning content using the same system thatstores their KID, e.g., the COTA system 100. In fact, the businessplanning software insures that the COTA system 100 is reflective of thecurrent business planning priorities because it resets the order ofcontents based upon the business plan imperatives. The COTA Plan marriesthe user's KID to their stated plan for each account. The COTA principleof a single structure and system for managing information can beleveraged over and over again.

(2) A complete copy of the business plan is stored, for example, underthe appropriate “3. Teams/BusinessPlan/Business Plan 2004” subset. Whenthe user needs to review a tactic or goal they simply navigate to thelocation of that tactic within the COTA categories 200 and read orupdate the tactic. The update is passed to the master plan in the “3.Teams” subset.

Teams can also designate a shared goal or an entire shared COTA plan.Each plan has its own unique icon for folders so the user candifferentiate between team and individual business plan goals. The COTAplan relates to other team members COTA plans so that universal updatescan be made. When an update occurs users can be notified via email inreal time or by receiving a monthly update sheet that automaticallysummarizes all business plan updates. The summary document itemizeswhich tactics have either been completed or not completed on time. Italso summarized the tactics that need to be completed in the comingmonth. The user can set the frequency and time periods to otherintervals (e.g. quarterly, weekly).

The COTA plan, like the COTA system 100, may be scaled up throughout anorganization. Information is aggregate and leveraged by the rest of theorganization. The COTA business plan priorities are used as a sortationfeature. For example, Information Technologies group could assist theMarket Analytics department in aggregating a priority account list bysimply performing a search for priority accounts in the “1. Clients”subset of the COTA categories 200. The enterprise could examine thedegree to which the enterprise is on track with its tactics byaggregating the monthly updates and tracking the percentage of OnTarget, Missed Deadlines, or Completed rating given by users. Executivescan be in charge of managing the enterprises global COTA plan.Information regarding global client sales is tracked using the same COTAbusiness plan methodology used by an entry level sales representative totrack territory sales. Business units serving internal clients are alsoable to articulate their business plans more effectively because theentire enterprise is using the basic COTA categories 200.

In one embodiment, when a goal is achieved the COTA plan folders changeappearance to signify that the goal is completed. This provides aconvenient visual means for targeting non-completed goals. When atimeline is missed, that timeline folder turns red. This, along with areminder in Lotus Notes Calendar, Outlook, etc. informs the user to openthe business plan folder and see where they are falling behind. At theend of the year, the COTA plan provides a rating for goals that were andwere not achieved. This rating is used as one criterion to judge thesuccess or failure of an individual, team, or enterprise in a givenyear.

10. Project Management Software

The inventors have discovered that project management requires that anindividual or team pull together KID that may be scattered throughoutthe individual or entire team's universe of knowledge. Spreadsheets,word documents, hard copy documents, action plans, presentations,meeting notes, goals, tactics, rosters, are just a few of the documentsthat need to be tracked for the completion of a successful project.Project management software often requires extensive training. Users ofproject management software often complain that existing packages arecounterintuitive. Typically, the software creates an independent storagelocation for its plans.

The COTA system 100 provides a solution to project management byproviding, for example, document templates to:

(1) Determine goals, strategies, objectives, and tactics;

(2) Create and track a series of events on a timeline; and

(3) Assign responsibility to certain individuals for the completion oftasks, etc.

What differentiates the COTA system's 100 project management module(COTA Project) is the way that it organizes and stores all of the KIDneeded to run a project. Any team that is working on a projectinvariably stores a large number of documents related to that particularproject. A first feature of the COTA Project is that it provides aFolder Template Builder that helps the project team build a sharedproject folder that contains all of the relevant documents and linksneeded for the completion of the project. Team members or the teamleader construct the folders based on the project's requirements.Folders are created to, for example, store the mission of the project,goals, strategies, timelines, flow charts, tactics, source material,rosters, related links, best practices, milestones, and any otherimportant project information. Users can choose from pre-existingtemplates or create their own folder structure through a query system.Once the project shell is completed, users populate the project templatewith the appropriate documents. In one embodiment, the COTA Projectmodules allows all documents to be e-mailed to the team memberdesignated as having primary responsibility for populating the COTAProject shell. Once populated the shell is e-mailed out to users whotarget it to a specific location in their COTA categories 200. In oneembodiment, a LAN or server connects team members to universally updateand modify documents. The LAN/server implementation allows all teammembers to work on their portion of the project at their convenience.

A second feature of the COTA Project which distinguishes it fromconventional project management software, is that the user does not haveto navigate to a team website to perform modifications to documents butrather, accesses the COTA Project Shell from within their own COTA UKIDS160. One benefit is that the user does not feel like they have to surfto a foreign site. Since COTA uses folders that look and act in asimilar fashion to standard explorer folders, the user feels comfortablewith manipulating COTA Project. In this way, COTA Project leverages thefamiliar COTA categories 200 to simplify and empower the projectmanagement process. Once all project team members have the projecttemplate, they can COTA Target information out to the whole group tocreate a standardized set of information. If a project team memberleaves the replacement member is able to quickly review the projectcontent and timelines.

Generally speaking, all KID relevant to any project is stored in oneplace with the COTA categories 200. However, sometimes project contentsexist in another location. For example, product specifications relevantto a project could be stored under “output” subset. COTA Project allowsthe user to link a secondary or tertiary copy of such a document intothe Project Template folder. This provides the ability to look at allKID in one place at one time. COTA project templates come preloaded witha flow chart planning tool. This tool creates a simple primary flowchart for all projects where documents, member responsibilities, dates,prioritization and notes are embedded in the flow chart. The COTAProject software relates to Outlook, Lotus Notes, etc. and providesreminder messages to members to complete tasks at appropriate times. Theflow chart relates to COTA Business Plan for each individual member. Itis important for any major project to be relevant to the team's orindividual's overall business plan. The COTA Project module allowspooling of project knowledge, simpler flow charting, relationship to thebusiness plan, and transferability in the event that a member leaves.The COTA Project Template provides structure and cohesion by adding astandardized framework for project managers and members.

11. Change Management Software

When an employee leaves it is often a difficult task to teach theirsuccessor how to quickly access inherited KID. The COTA ChangeManagement software module assists a user who is new or has inheritedall or a portion of their predecessor's UKIDS 160. The COTA ChangeManagement software provides a guided tour of existing informationincluding the largest, most used, and recently used file folders. Thesoftware describes the priorities and knowledge needed for success. Ifthe outgoing employee is unavailable, the Change Management softwareincludes an ability for the former employee to document their thoughtson the most important information within the system. The former employeecan also record a list of important things that the outgoing employeebelieves that the new employee should complete in the first few monthson the job, can explain what templates exist within the outgoingemployee's COTA system 100. The COTA Change Management Software alsoassists the user in storing their TAO System and other business relatedKID on their new computer. In effect, the COTA Change Management systemprovides the information and functions needed for a smooth andproductive transition of employees.

12. Voice Recognition Software

Blending a UKIDS with voice recognition technology yields a product withimproved capabilities and utility for both handicapped andnon-handicapped users. The inventive COTA system 100 provides a voicerecognition system that leverages the logical arrangement ofspecifically named folders and sub-folders (e.g., the COTA categories200) to locate desired KID with greater speed, accuracy and ease of use.User of COTA voice recognition would identify a master folder (Level 0),Level 1 folder name, level 2 folder name etc. (e.g., “COTA, Clients,Client 1, Widget Proposals”) to enable the user to drill down to asmaller more meaningful subset of folders, which can then be searched orsorted with a relational or other type of database search engine. Such aparse would eliminate roughly ninety-nine percent (99%) of KID that doesnot pertain to the sought after information.

This inherent parse of undesired KID solves the major challenge ofconventional relational search engines, e.g., that they tend to bring upa huge number of irrelevant documents that is difficult for businesspeople or blind users to manage. Additionally, the universality of theCOTA system 100 makes it easier and more productive to implement a voicerecognition system throughout a department, division or enterprise. Thefact that workers have common folders at Levels 1, 2, and to some degreelevel 3 means that training and set up are simplified.

The known hierarchical structure and fact that all KID is accessiblewithin one data structure (e.g., of the COTA system 100 UKIDS 160)promotes hand free operation and remote data manipulation.

The COTA Map facility (described below) aids implementation of a voicerecognition module in that a list of folder names under the COTAcategories 200 can be produced based upon the order and hierarchy. Byreading each folder title back into a voice recognition recording devicespecific matching digital voice maps are created.

When operating the voice recognition system a user need only call outthe prerecorded names and drill down to the desired KID just as theywould if they were manually traversing the COTA categories 200. SinceUKS rules dictate that exceedingly long strings of documents shouldusually be sub-divided into smaller folders, the user can quickly drilldown to a very small subset of documents.

When a user who is blind or unable to view their computer screen can notremember the next folder or actual document name, the voice recognitionsystem can be queried with a key word to rapidly read off thefiles/document options at the next level. The user can choose the properdocument or folder by voice, telephone pad, PDA, computer, etc. The usercan also switch to a relational database sort at any time. For example,when confronted by two or more potential documents or folders that maycontain the sought after information, the user can then put voice searchon hold and request a relational content or title search comparison ofthe remaining KID. The benefit is that this provides a much more focusedarea of sorting, which is essential for voice recognition technologies.

The user can vocally maneuver through the COTA system 100 with a seriesof voice commands including but not limited to “Back 1,” “Back 2,” etc.,“forward 1,” “forward 2,” etc., “back home,” “forward end,” etc. Thisallows the user to rapidly cruise on a path to and from a particulardocument. All other obvious functional features that relate to documentswould be employed such as “save as”, “open,” etc. Once located, the useris able to print, edit, fax, email, etc., the document to anyone whoneeds it with voice commands.

A special module for blind users allows greater user of voicerecognition to title, retrieve, read, and write documents. The COTAvoice recognition module for blind users includes the ability to printBraille labels, COTA Maps and guides for organizing filing cabinets,shelves, CD Rom libraries, etc. This aids blind users in manipulating anincreasingly large number of Braille documents within filing cabinets.For quadriplegics and other handicapped individuals, the COTA system 100presents a low cost, mouse free alternative that will allow more rapidlocation, retrieval, and storage of information.

The COTA system's 100 time stamp labeling feature (described below) canbe employed to easily locate time clustered documents once documentlevel is reached or approached. The user simply says “June 2000” or“summer 2002” and the COTA voice recognition system locates documents inor around that time frame.

At each level, the user can give some specific information that furthernarrows the field including but not limited too, document type (e.g.,Adobe, Word, etc.) document content, relative document size (large,medium, small, etc.), document structure (letter, proposal, etc.),keywords within document, creation date, etc. The user has the abilityto preset their interpretation of a letter, large document or folder.

In one embodiment, the COTA system 100 is loaded to recognize a widervariety of voices at the more general levels so that users who inherit asystem can quickly access a portion of the LOCK on their first attemptat voice recognition. This would be helpful for people who are servingas a proxy for the primary operator in accessing sought after files whena person is out sick or on vacation. Additional recognition systems areavailable for character, handwriting, and other forms of symbolicrecognition. Operating system commands can be added to the functionalityonce document level is reached.

13. Handheld Assistant Interface Software

The inventive COTA system 100 includes a digital handheld assistantsoftware module that provides an interactive COTA Map for storage on apersonal digital assistant (PDA), BLACKBERRY device, mobileradiotelephone, or like handheld electronic devices. The handheldassistant interface software provides a representation of theaforementioned portal 400 for accessing the COTA categories 200 of theUKIDS 160. The handheld representation differs from complete the COTAcategories 200 in the UKIDS 160 as it does not contain actual KID,rather only titles of KID is stored in the handheld COTA map. As can beappreciated, memory space is at a premium in handheld devices thereforeit is not desirable to store the contents of all KID stored in the COTAcategories 200.

Benefits of the handheld assistant software are apparent when the useris in a remote location and needs a particular KID. In this case, accessto the KID may be obtained by undertaking the following actions:

(1) The user pages through the handheld COTA Map and locates one ofthousands of KID titles stored within the COTA categories 200 of theUKIDS 160.

(2) The user selects the KID title and chooses one of the followingoptions from a menu:

-   -   (A) Retrieve the KID from the COTA categories 200 of the UKIDS        160 and send the complete KID item (e.g., a document) to the        requesting handheld device.    -   (B) Retrieve the KID from the UKIDS 160 and send it to another        device (e.g., a facsimile machine, another handheld device, a        computing device of a co-worker, client, etc.).    -   (C) Edit the KID first, then send to the requesting handheld or        another device.    -   (D) Print, rename, or save the KID as under a different title.

(3) Once instructions are provided the user presses send.

(4) The handheld device then sends a request message by, for example,email, telephone, satellite, or other communications method etc. to ahost device. The host device accesses the UKIDS 160 and retrieves therequested KID. The host device then transmits the requested KID inaccordance with the requested instruction (e.g., back to the requestinghandheld or to another device).

While conventional systems permit remote access to some KID repositories(e.g., email, or file management systems), these systems are not seen tosupport remote access and manipulation of a universal KID storagelibrary such as the aforementioned UKIDS 160 system. It should beappreciated that the principles described herein applied to any remotedevice including remote handheld computer devices, radiotelephones, cellphone, etc. and any other equipment that contains computer technologysuch as cars, sports equipment etc. For example, a map could berequested from a car's computer system to the operator's PDA for up linkvia a satellite system.

Some other advantages of using the handheld assistant software andhandheld COTA Map include:

(1) The handheld COTA Map matches the COTA categories 200 of the UKIDS160 and therefore is familiar to the user and should be easier to learnand negotiate. The similarity of the maps is intended to eliminatecreation of an additional data storage silo.

(2) Search facilities available through the COTA system 100 aregenerally a faster and more accurate way to locate an urgently neededdocument.

(3) Since a UKIDS is used across an entire organization, the transmittalof KID as attachments in email messages will increase the ways thatinformation can be transferred throughout organizations. The handheldassistant software can be used by remote operatives who may need avariety of documents, forms, etc. at any given time from their owncomputer based COTA categories 200 in the UKIDS 160.

(4) The use of the handheld assistant software enables users to requestKID from their own computer systems from remote locations with relativeease.

(5) The handheld assistant software can also be used when taking meetingnotes on a handheld device. The user initiate an import of the meetingnotes directly to the appropriate COTA categories 200 of the UKIDS 160by selecting a save feature.

(6) The handheld assistant software accommodates synchronizationprocesses of conventional handheld devices such that changes made toCOTA categories 200 and/or previously requested and downloaded KID aremirrored between the handheld COTA Map and the UKIDS 160.

14. Security Software

It has been reported that billions of dollars of intellectual propertyassets in the form of electronic and paper documents are stolen everyyear. The inventors have discovered that one reason why documents arestolen is that individual storage systems are rarely, if ever, reviewedby team leaders or other persons in positions of authority. One factorcomplicating any review process is that few people store KID is asimilar manner. In this environment, it is far easier for outgoingemployees to copy and/or delete KID in the last few days of theiremployment.

As noted above, the COTA categories 200 permit creation of shared UKIDS160 for storing KID in universal storage locations. The COTA system 100represents a new and unexpected tool for securing documents for thefollowing reasons:

(1) It is easier to secure a centrally located structure;

(2) It is harder to steal things when co-workers can review your work;

(3) It is easier to write software to monitor a large mass of data thatis structured with the help of a universal organizational principles;and

(4) It is easier to assign a priority value to information that isalready prioritized.

In one embodiment the COTA system 100 includes COTALOCK securitysoftware having, for example, the following functions:

(1) Each employee's COTA categories 200 are periodically backed up to anarchive storage medium (e.g., a zip drive, CD ROM, network server,etc.). The backup can be done by designated employees or automaticallyby the COTA system 100.

(2) A team leader or other person of authority periodically reviewsbacked up information. Back ups and reviews can be, for example,monthly, quarterly, annually, etc. If preferred, administrativeassistants or other can facilitate the maintenance and inspection ofback up libraries. Additionally, the COTA system 100 includes a softwaremodule for inspecting KID that is backed up to insure that users areusing appropriate COTA categories, titles, labeling, structure, rules,etc. Such an automated review is possible because KID is arranged in thefamiliar and user-friendly structure. Currently, this kind of evaluationwould be very difficult.

(3) Reviewers (e.g., the team leaders, etc.) access and navigate eachemployees' COTA categories 200. This allows the reviewer to coach teammembers on activity level, quality of database, goals achieved, teamorganization, etc. Reviewers can review individual COTA categories 200in relation to Team or Global Enterprise COTA. If the subject employeeis not gathering useful information then they can be redirected towardsappropriate goals. The review not only benefits the employee but alsofamiliarizes the reviewer with a each employee's library of knowledge(e.g., LOCK) that they may need to reassign if the subject employeedeparts.

In one embodiment, benefits and elements of a security review using theCOTALOCK module include the following:

(1) Review discourages employees from hiding KID in their personal TAOsubset 210. The security software records KID transfers from thevocational COTA subset 220 to the personal TAO subset 210 to preventgradual erosion of professional KID into the portable personal subset.

(2) Reviewers are trained to encourage development of the COTAcategories 200 of the UKIDS 160 (e.g., expand the LOCK) with a goal ofsimplified transferability. When reviewers work with employee this setsthe stage for reviewers helping incoming employees learn theirpredecessor's KID, COTA categories 200 and UKIDS 160.

(3) The reviewer inspects the COTA categories 200 to make sure thatprofessional documents are being placed in the professional portion ofUKIDS 160, e.g., with the COTA categories 220. This review makes it moredifficult for an employee to “hide” professional documents in theirpersonal folders, which are generally confidential, password protectedand off limits to reviewers.

(4) The COTALOCK security software records transactions that arerelevant to protection of intellectual property. The software printsrelevant information and periodically forwards the information toreviewers via email, fax, etc. For example, the COTALOCK softwaredetects dramatic increases in copied, deleted, or printed documents ator around the time an employee leaves a company. The software provides aCOTA Security Alert Chart or report 500 (an example of which isillustrated in FIG. 10) including the title and priority rank of itemsbased on the documents location within the COTA categories 200. TheCOTALOCK software allows management and legal teams to quickly locatethe missing KID and place it in context of the employee's departure. Forexample, an outgoing employee that copies or deletes hundreds ofdocuments from their UKIDS 160 on their last official day at work isquickly identified using the Security Alert Chart 500.

As illustrated in FIG. 10, the Security Alert Chart 500 includes apriority indicator 510 that indicates that the KID deleted pertains tohigh priority clients. Business unit leaders or other authorizedpersonnel can designate which portions of a user's COTA UKIDS 160, ifany, can be downloaded and taken to the user's next job. For example, auser can take KID within the TAO subset 210 and some corporate KID suchas, for example, information on their own 401K benefit plan. User's areprohibited however, from taking KID corresponding to important orconfidential output KID such as projects relating to new productdevelopment.

Business unit leaders can also designate portions of the user's COTAcategories 200 that are of highest priority in terms of theft ofintellectual property. For example, in FIG. 10, the Security Alert Chart500 indicates at 510 that a former sales person deleted a large numberof high priority client folders before leaving ABC Co. A priority ratingof “1.2” represents that the user either deleted client files or filesassigned a high priority by business unit leaders. The volume ofdeletions is a strong sign that the former sales person may have beenattempting to steal or damage files. Additionally, since the COTA system100 facilities backup processing, the COTALOCK security softwarecompares previous backup files of the former sales person's COTAcategories 200 and determines exactly which files where taken.

(5) The COTALOCK security software creates a list of KID that shouldexist within an employees COTA categories 200 based upon comparisons of,for example, a global enterprise COTA categories and the formeremployee's computer. Management and/or legal teams can reference thecomparison to determine what was deleted and how it fits in to thecontext of the employee's departure. Attorney's can more readilyprosecute former employees for theft of intellectual property becausefor the first time, they have a paper trail of transactions and aneasily navigable back up from which to draw comparisons.

(6) The reviewer can direct the COTALOCK software to create specialreports on sensitive topics. For example, a reviewer could request thatthe security software provide reports on output that is classified orsecret. The software can also be requested to provide greater trackingof specific KID, for example, KID pertaining to important clients.

(7) The reviewer may also focus reviews on particular COTA categories200, for example, during a first year of employment the review may belimited (e.g., COTALOCK software may be limited to reviewing) KID withinan employee's “4. administrative” subset. In second and later years ofemployment, the review may be expanded to consider all aspects of theCOTA categories 200 or focus upon selected ones, e.g., “1. clients”subset.

The inventors have found that the COTALOCK security software acts as adeterrent to theft, duplication, print out, deletion etc. ofintellectual property. Additionally, the COTALOCK software preventslarge-scale deletion of KID because comparisons can be made to backupfiles and “lost” KID may be recovered.

15. Secure Folder System

In the U.S. legislation such as, for example, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act,require enterprises to more accurately track and manage importantbusiness documents. The inventors have found that many enterprises lacka strategy for managing information stored in individual employee's filemanagement systems such as, for example, their personal file folders,electronic files such as “C:\My Documents,” etc. Since users are free toconfigure their file management systems “on the fly” and without anystandardized structure, prioritization scheme, or guidelines, there isvirtually little chance for an enterprise to monitor mission criticaldocuments. The death, replacement, departure of just one key individualcould significantly impact an enterprise's ability to respond to animportant task.

As described herein, the COTA system 100 provides a universal KIDmanagement structure to address the aforementioned and other challenges.Specifically, the COTA system 100 provides a solution for managingenterprise critical KID in accordance with document tracking legislationsuch as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. COTA Secure represents a completelydifferent approach to the storage of critical KID. With theimplementation of an enterprise-wide UKIDS 160 a mandatory locationwithin the UKIDS 160 can be assigned for storing critical KID in allemployee's COTA categories 200. In one embodiment, the COTA Securemodule:

(1) Assigns non-modifiable, fixed pathways within the UKIDS 160 forstoring critical documents.

(2) Places a non-deletable, standard folder in the fixed pathways.

(3) Enforces education and training principles taught to employeesregarding the importance of placing critical KID into the standardfolder by periodically sweeping each employee's UKIDS 160 and retrievingKID stored in the standard folders. Comparisons are then made todetermine whether the employee is following protocols established withinthe COTA Secure module.

(4) Issues warnings to employees who are not placing the criticaldocuments into the standard folders or who tampering with the folders inany way.

(5) Scales the individual secure folder pathway structure to largersites (e.g., Internet or Intranet sites) for easy comprehension andlocation of critical documents.

Many applications exist for the COTA secure module such as, for example:

(1) Secure primary (Level 1) or other COTA categories 200 such as Level2 “clients,” “output,” “teams,” etc.

(2) Secure key COTA target pathways. For example, the marketing teammight create a secure pathway to the sales department's COTA categories200 such as “COTA/2. Output/Widgets/Pricing.”

(3) Enterprises might want to secure policies and proceduresinformation.

(4) Key departments such as a training department may want to securetraining information to maximize retention of critical information, etc.

Securing certain portions of employee's COTA categories 200 preservesquality and allows the enterprise to leverage standardization. The COTASecure module provides a skeletal framework that can't be changedwithout authorization. The COTA Secure module can secure any KID such asdocuments, folders, or sub-folders that might exist within a UKIDS 160.The inventors see a significant benefit to users of the COTA datatargeting software.

16. Resiliency/Disaster Recovery Software

Enterprises typically formulate plans to recovery KID lost in the caseof catastrophic events. Most recovery plans preserve of the KID that hasbeen accumulated to date in a separate location. Current plans do nothave a strategy preserving and restoring a contextual understanding ofwhat a departed user's Knowledge actually means to the enterprise. Forexample, once a person's KID is saved, how does a replacement quicklyunderstand what all of the KID really means? The KID stored in anyindividual's computer represents a significant investment to theenterprise. However, the vast majority of individuals do not have a LOCKsystem for storing KID that is easily navigated or understood byco-workers. Therefore, even if a recovery team rebuilds lost KID, if thecreators of the KID are not available the corporation lacks the abilityto make sense of an alarmingly large portion of the rebuilt KID.

The COTA system 100 provides a solution in the form of COTA ResiliencySoftware (CRS). Use of a consolidated and structured UKIDS 160 such asis employed within the COTA system 100 makes the reconstruction of adeparted individual's KID less complex. Recovery agents search only acentral data repository (e.g., the UKIDS 160), which has a familiar anduseful structure to locate important KID. As described above, the COTAsystem's 100 UKIDS 160 contains clustered and prioritized KID. A newuser can quickly review the UKIDS 160 and gain a content and contextualunderstanding of the KID.

In one embodiment, the CRS creates e-mail messages by cross-referencingthe COTA system 100 and the enterprise's time management contacts. Themessages are customized and are immediately launched by the recoverycrew. These messages contain important information on what has happenedand how business is affected. These messages contain new contactinformation so that clients can contact key personnel and ask questionsabout critical issues. These messages can provide timelines or referencekey ongoing projects. The CRS educates replacements on a departed user'sCOTA UKIDS 160. The CRS takes replacements on a virtual tour of all KIDand helps them to understand what matters most. CRS acts as an agent byanalyzing the departed user's priority client list and cross-referencingthat list to time management tasks, calendar dates, and email messages.For example, CRS creates a list of messages of importance to thereplacement worker. This list includes, for example, messages such as:

-   -   “A review of your COTA system indicates that the prior user had        a calendar appointment with a #3 Priority Client-Client 1, at 2        PM on Tuesday Aug. 18th. Top priority current projects with        Client 1 include Widget Proposal and Anvil Proposal. Both can be        found at ‘COTA/1. Clients/Client 1/Proposals.’ There is a highly        prioritized task that references #3 Priority Client, Client 1,        that reads as follows: ‘Complete Widget Proposal by Aug. 15th’.”

CRS runs mock trials of disasters and allows users to become adept atquickly understanding and leveraging existing LOCK systems for deceasedor injured co-workers. In the past this type of training was difficultbecause of the variety of information management methods being deployed.Employing a standardized UKIDS within the COTA system maximizestransferability. It also provides a standard for all employees to striveto achieve. Standardization allows coaching and performance review ofthe quality of employee's UKIDS storage within the context of disasterrecovery. CRS comes loaded with analysis tools that help disasterrecovery experts to ascertain the true transferability of a givensystem. COTA Consultants can help enterprises target and test the mostcritical users' COTA Systems. COTA Systems receiving high marks from CRSwould be easily transferred to other workers, new hires, replacements,etc.

The following scenario describes how CRS functions.

(1) On Oct. 5th 2008 an earthquake demolished a large sky scraper in theSan Francisco bay area. ABC Co.'s headquarters was destroyed and manypeople died in the tragic event. On the east coast, a team of recoveryexperts immediately springs into action using existing KID recoverytools and CRS. The team recovers ninety percent (90%) of the Knowledgethat existed before the quake.

(2) Jake Smith, a disaster recovery expert, was assigned to David Day'sknowledge system. David had been killed in the earthquake. The systemthat Jake was reviewing included all of David's KID and computerinformation and settings that had been backed up by ABC's IT departmentthrough a third party vendor. Jake finds it relatively easy to examineand manipulate David's KID because it is stored under the COTA systemprinciples.

(3) CRS takes Jake on a tour of David's COTA system 100 and UKIDS 160.CRS points out “clients,” “output,” “teams,” and “administration”priorities. Since Jake is familiar with the COTA system 100 prioritieshe quickly understands the nature of David's job. He feels that he couldquickly locate almost any file folder in David's system. CRS runs Jakethrough some quick exercises to see if he can find files within David'sSystem.

(4) CRS then compares David's COTA system with his time managementsystem (e.g., Outlook). CRS generates standard emails explaining whathas happened to all of David's clients. Jake can edit and review themessages before sending them. CRS also provides a list of apredetermined percentage (X%) of David's top priority clients so thatJake can spend more time reviewing tasks, appointments, and projectswith these clients. For example, CRS brings up all of the tasks andappointments scheduled with David's top X % clients. The prioritizationused in the COTA system 100 provides an ideal tool for Jake to addressissues that would have mattered most to David.

(5) CRS focuses on finding mission critical projects, appointments,deadlines, that must be met in order for an enterprise to survive.

(6) Within two hours Jake feels that he intimately understand David'sjob. CRS provides additional software so that Jake can efficiently trainand update David's replacement.

As illustrated above, CRS helps to preserve and transfer what isarguable the most important asset of any enterprise, its KID. CRSprovides enterprises with a new and useful tool in their resiliencyplanning. They can now quickly understand and interact with the departedemployee's information more rapidly. Today's recovery tools do notrecover a person's tacit perspective and understanding of their own job.CRS does.

17. Meeting, Agenda, and Notes Process/Software

The inventors have found meetings are a common event within mostenterprises. Meetings usually consist of a series of topics meldedtogether within the framework of an agenda. Attendees often feel thatparts of the meeting are “pointless.” One reason that apathy and boredomensue is because attendees feel disconnected from the materialpresented. That is, attendees fail to see the significance of apresentation to their every day job responsibilities. Good meetingleaders remind attendees of the importance of each aspect of the meetingon their jobs. Leaders often struggle to win over the group to thepurpose and mission of the meeting. The inventors have discover thatthis may occur because attendees lack a simplifying structure thatplaces each portion of a meeting into the context of their jobs.Additionally, the inventors have observed that when attendees returnhome from a meeting or convention they often have a huge amount ofmaterials to store. This can be a time consuming and difficult process.

The COTA system 100 provides a solution to some of these challenges. ACOTA agenda module formulates an agenda that is broken out by the COTAcategories 200 that can be used by the employees to store all of theirKID. Utilizing a familiar and useful structure as a basis for agendacreation provides meeting planners with an ongoing metaphor thatunderscores the importance of each portion of the meeting. The COTAagenda module contains pictures and layout tools that allow the agendacreator to link each agenda item to the COTA system. For example, clientdiscussions can be clustered together under the “1. Client” subset 230of the agenda. In one embodiment, this section is color coded green. Ifclient portions of the meeting need to be broken up, they can be linkedtogether with the other client sections of the meeting in a masteroverview agenda document that is reviewed before, during, and after themeeting.

Hyperlinks into existing the UKIDS 160 of the COTA system 100automatically color codes KID with COTA Colors (described below). Thecreator of the agenda can choose from graphics that symbolize clientservice, quality products, teamwork and the importance ofadministration. The COTA Agenda provides agenda layouts, images of theCOTA Flow Chart (described below), quotations on clients, output, teams,and administration.

It should be appreciated that a meeting does not have to follow thehierarchy of the COTA categories. The point is that attendees know howmeeting content relates to the COTA categories within the context oftheir jobs. Attendees also are constantly reminded of the importance ofeach section of the COTA model. As with COTA data delivery mechanism,handouts or presentations provided at the meeting should include storagerecommendations and file pathways listed on them so that users knowwhere to store each item within the COTA categories 200 of their UKIDS160. PowerPoint presentations employ symbols, color coding, movies, filepathways, and graphics to orient the attendee to the relevance of eachsection of the meeting.

A COTA Meeting Notes software module assists users in taking notes oneach section of the meeting. Notes, like the agenda items, are colorcoded and path labeled by the user. The COTA Notes software moduleallows for sections of a single notes document to be broken out andstored under various sub folders depending on COTA categories 200, ifneeded. COTA Color coding and file path designation allow the user toassign portions of a notes document to the appropriate sub folder. Amaster version of the notes can be stored under, for example, “3.Teams—Meeting Notes” subset. Additionally, all meeting content that isrequired by users can be direct deposited into their LOCK systems. Asdescribed above, a Direct Deposit Summary sheet can be provided toattendees so that they will know what and where KID was depositedbefore, during, or after the meeting.

All hard copy materials such as brochures, binders, CD ROM, etc arecolor coded and include a clearly labeled storage location within eachattendee's UKIDS 160. This reduces the complexity of storing materialsacquired at a meeting.

18. Interview Software

The inventors have discovered that some interviewers miss crucialaspects of an interviewee's professional history and skill set. Theproblem may occur when the interviewer is focused on one aspect of anapplicant's career. Structuring an interview can be time consuming anddifficult. The challenge of summarizing an individual's professional andpersonal accomplishments is difficult because interviewers often have nooverarching, familiar, and useful organizing principle for KIDcollection during an interview.

The COTA system 100 provides a solution to this challenge by providingCOTA interview software. The COTA interview software provides a seriesof interview questions for each COTA category 200. This allows theinterviewer to cover main areas of a business career, for example:

(1) How was an interviewee providing value to clients;

(2) What is the extent of output knowledge and how has the intervieweedeveloped it;

(3) What team contribution has the interviewee made to the delivery ofoutput to clients;

(4) What administrative process capabilities does the intervieweepossess; and

(5) How has the interviewee combined items (1)-(4) to create maximumcontribution and value to a former employer, enterprise, etc.

COTA represents all of the major areas or buckets of information for anindividual's career. Therefore it makes sense that those buckets shouldcontain valuable information for evaluating the success of an employee'scareer. The COTA interview software module contains pre-set questionsthat cover these important areas. The user selects questions for eachsection of the interview: Clients, Output, Teams, Admin, and combinationof the COTA categories. The COTA interview software also has a tool thathelps interviewers to create their own questions. All of the questionsare then melded into an interview document that is easy for theinterviewer to use because it progresses logically through the familiarand useful COTA structure used possibly by both the interviewer andinterviewee on a daily basis. Color coding and an automated scoringsection help the interviewer to automatically score applicants. The COTAinterview software can read an applicant's COTA Map from a prior job andgenerate questions based upon the COTA categories. All traditionalinterview techniques can be employed but the overall structure of theinterview is what changes with the implementation of the COTAinterviewing software.

19. Flow Charting Software

Flow charts are commonly used within enterprises to describe processes.Individual business units, teams, and individuals create a multitude offlow charts that vary tremendously. The variation erodes thecomprehension of flow charts through out organizations. In addition,many individuals do not understand the importance of creating flowcharts. They fail to see that “a picture is worth a thousand words” andchoose to create long documents that are difficult for others tounderstand.

The inventors have developed a COTA Process Flow Charting software thatimproves upon conventional process flow charting software such as, forexample, VISIO and FLOW!. While including some of the traditionalfeatures of conventional process flow charting software, the COTAProcess Flow Charting software provides a global starting point for allenterprise flow charts. For example, the COTA Flow Chart softwareprovides contextual path information that orients viewers to the COTAcategories 200 from which a particular flow chart belongs. Each COTAflow chart contains a color code key/path description that describeswhat COTA category a flow chart is related. In one embodiment, the COTAFlow Chart software is programmed to nest a flow chart within a largersub-folder flow chart. For example, while presenting a flow chart aspeaker can show an administrative flow chart being described coming outof the “4. Administration” subset.

The COTA flow charts reside as individual folders within the COTA system100 but for presentation and research purposes the flow charts can besorted out and shown in a vacuum. This allows users to pull all flowcharts created out of the COTA system and see how they fit within thecontext of the individual, team, and enterprise. This feature helpsenterprises understand key administrative processes. All processes canbe viewed within a super structure for the first time. Key processes canbe flow charted throughout an enterprise and then viewed together as aseries of interlinked processes nesting one within another. Being ableto view processes within the context of a master flow chart allowsenterprises to become more efficient and productive.

20. Needs Assessment Software

The inventors have discovered that many business teams find it difficultto accurately assess the needs of both internal and external clients. Asa result, many enterprises lose valuable external customers who arebetter services by competition. Dissatisfied internal clients can createa negative image of an internal team that can result in loss ofpersonnel, funding, and even outsourcing. Failure to please internal andexternal clients can result in significant difficulties.

The COTA system provides a solution by providing a COTA Needs Assessmenttool. The COTA Needs Assessment tool leverages the familiar and usefulCOTA categories 200 to assess client needs. The user develops a needsassessment within the context of the COTA system 100. When the NeedsAssessment tool is invoked the user navigates file folders with theexact same methodology as they navigate their COTA categories 200.However, instead of the subsets containing documents the user findsneeds assessment questions and guidance. In one embodiment, the user canadd customized questions to the appropriate COTA categories 200. Theuser selects standardized and/or customized questions that they want touse in the needs assessment. The user then visits a client and followsthe COTA categories structure asking questions such as, for example, theclient's goals, objectives, etc. The user also asks questions about theclient's needs. The user fills in the client's answers to the needsassessment questions as they relate to each aspect of the COTAcategories 200. In one embodiment, results from the needs assessment arestored within that a “client” subset for the assessed client. Currentneeds assessment tools do not mirror the structure of a user's UKIDS.Also, current systems do not open and query users through a series ofquestions that relate directly to COTA categories 200.

Exemplary questions include:

(1) Client questions:

-   -   What are your key goals and objectives for the next twelve (12)        months?    -   What do you need to accomplish this year?    -   What obstacles do you see in the future?    -   Can you tell me about your internal or external clients?    -   What aspects of your team's mission keeps you up at night?    -   What would you like to achieve if you had unlimited resources?    -   Lets discuss your idea of return value. What do you think is        fair return value for poor output, good output, and great        output?    -   If we provide you with excellent output, would it be possible to        increase return value through increased loyalty, volume        commitments, extended contracts, etc.    -   What are your personal interests: Sports, Music, Family, etc.

(2) Output questions:

-   -   Please describe what excellence in Output/Products/Services        means to you?    -   What will your current output needs be for the coming year?    -   How would you rate my team's output?    -   List areas of improvement and strengths of my output?    -   What is your budget for output this year?    -   What kinds of value added output would be helpful to you?    -   How would you compare my output to my competitor's output?    -   Why would you say you give X amount of business to my        competitor?

(3) Team questions:

-   -   Please describe your idea of an excellent Vendor Team.    -   Which vendor team is your favorite team? Why?    -   Please be frank: How would you describe my Team?    -   Have you ever been left high and dry by one of your vendor        teams?    -   Can you describe the incident and relate your impressions of the        experience?    -   How can we best service your team in the coming months?

(4) Administration questions:

-   -   Can you describe your administrative needs in the coming years?    -   Will your team be requiring any new administrative processes        this year?    -   How do you prefer to communicate, be invoiced, receive quotes,        etc.        21. Client Satisfaction Measurement Tool (CSMT)

The COTA Client Satisfaction Measurement Tool (CSMT) is used byindividuals, teams, and the entire enterprises. CSMT provides a seriesof questions to judge an internal or external client's current level ofsatisfaction with a team's provision of Output. What makes COTA CSMTunique is that the results of the survey (e.g., percent satisfied) areposted within the user's UKIDS 160, e.g., next to the particularclient's “1. client” subset (shown generally at 550 of FIG. 11). Asillustrated in FIG. 11, CSMT provides an ongoing measurement remindingthe user of their rating with that particular client. Users, Teams, orEnterprises can use Client Satisfaction as a useful sortation device.For example, an enterprise can assemble a list of its top five percent(5%) “most satisfied” and “most dissatisfied” external clients bysearching UKIDS 160 of its sales staff. The inventors have discoveredthat sorting clients by “satisfaction level” is an excellent way toimprove overall sales and efficiency. The satisfaction questions can betailored to a specific client or be pulled from a bank of questions inthe software. Enterprises have an option of developing a uniform CSMTtool for all teams through the deployment of standardized questions. Sothe questions can be all custom, all standardized, or a mix of both. Theuser or enterprise can sort by Satisfaction level. The placement of thesatisfaction rating next to the “1. client” subset is a constantreminder of a particular satisfaction rating. In one embodiment, theuser can select the satisfaction rating and open the COTA CSMT Survey toreview specific responses of a client.

Exemplary satisfaction questions include:

(1) Please rate our team's performance on a scale of one to five (1-5).

(2) Please rate your satisfaction with our team's output on a scale ofone to five

(1-5).

(3) Did our output meet your needs over the past three (3) months.

22. On-boarding Team Book

Teams often put together what may be referred to as a “team book,”“battle book,” “on-boarding book,” “orientation book” or the like, todocument team activities, mission, goals, participants, roles, etc.Invariably information is randomly placed in various parts of the book,as there are generally no structural guidelines given. Accordingly, teambooks are all created differently. If a person leaves one team foranother they will find a completely different book with completelydifferent structure. This makes such books cumbersome to use for bothnew and experienced team members.

In the COTA system 100, a COTA battle book leverages the familiar anduseful UKIDS structure and COTA categories to determine its structure.For example, information relating to client is followed by informationrelating to output, which is followed by information relating to teams,which in turn is followed by information relating to administration.

23. Scale-Scalability Software

Today's Knowledge workers are confronted with a vast array of publicfolder structures and net structures. As a result, site designers areoften confused and surprised that so few people use sites that may havecost enterprises hundreds of thousands of dollars to design andimplement. Many business leaders lament that the public foldersapplication is underutilized. This highly useful tool is often ignoredbecause users are tired of suffering for information in multipledivergent data structures. Information technology experts often complainthat the information residing on an enterprises server is “a structuralmess!” This common concern arises from the fact that users create alarge and disorganized amount of folders and documents that are storedin the server/web with almost no thought of how their information fitsinto the enterprise's overall information management scheme. IT expertscommonly complain about bizarre folder and document names. They also saythat upkeep of server document sites is an extremely tiring, boring, andtime consuming task. They have no way of knowing what information isimportant or obsolete. The storage space consumed by useless documentson servers is also a concern. It is hard to envision a future in whichboth individual and enterprise storage is not unified in some way by anoverarching set of standards and guidelines.

Once again, the COTA system 100 has a solution. A COTA Design softwareand consulting allows designers to scale the COTA categories design toservers, public folders, intranet websites and all manner of KIDstorage. The COTA Design software helps users build sites around thefamiliar and useful COTA categories saving design time, reducing costs,and improving the usefulness of KID storage sites. Users surfing thesesites find it extremely easy to find information because the sitesmirrors their own COTA systems 100. The functionality of the softwarecan also be communicated manually via licensed COTA Consultants.

The COTA Design software includes, for example:

(1) Design tools for websites linked to the COTA categories, color code,guidelines, flow chart process etc.

(2) Instruction Builder—Designers can pull instructions from astandardized instruction bank. This makes it easy to communicate COTAguidelines.

(3) Site Builder Tool—A software interface that allows the user to buildportions of the site by surfing through what appears to be a COTA filefolder system. First, the user opens the “clients” folder and answers aseries of queries that help the software to build the client structureof the site. The same process is repeated for each COTA category, e.g.,output, teams, and administration. The user can then add features suchas, for example, a bulletin board and news section.

24. To Do List

A COTA To Do List creates a task list that is sortable by the COTAcategories structure. The task list is color-coded and sorts based uponthe COTA hierarchy. This helps the user to see what they need toaccomplish for clients, output, teams, and administration.

25. Time Management Enhancements

The COTA system can extend the COTA hierarchy (e.g., COTA categories)and color coding into time management processes such as tasks, calendar,contacts, etc., so that users can sort tasks by the familiar client,output, team, and administration subsets. Color coding allows for usersto see a different dimension to their information. It also allows for asynergistic relationship of programs like Outlook and the COTA system.The COTA system allows Outlook information to populate into a COTAcategories 200 of the UKIDS 160. In essence this provides a new anduseful means for sorting any kind of information found in a timemanagement/Outlook/Lotus Notes type of software. An example of thiswould be green color coding of all client email messages. This providesa secondary sortation device that allows users to prioritize incominginformation.

26. Organizational Chart

The inventors have realized that some team members struggle tounderstand which people within internal or external client hold whatpositions. Decision-making is generally better when team members areplaced within their hierarchal context by teams that are serving them.For example, it is generally important to know whom the primary clientcontact reports to. It is also important to know who is subordinate tothe primary client content or at a peer level. When an employee leavesan enterprise, they often take such intimate knowledge of theclient's/team's internal structure with them. Without this informationmiscalculations can occur such as, for example, failing to recognize ahigh-level executive at a meeting. Similar challenges emerge whenbuilding internal organizational chart and team rosters.

The COTA system 100 provides a COTA Organizational chart that works inconjunction with contacts information stored within, for example, timemanagement programs such as Outlook, Lotus Notes, etc. The COTAOrganization Chart software allows users to automatically sort all oftheir clients and then paste those clients into an organization chart.COTA users simply select and drag contacts folders into a COTAOrganizational Chart page. Using the Organizational Chart software, theusers arranges the folders into appropriate places and use flow chartstyle arrows to connect contacts in a simple and highly transferablefeature. This feature allows for a simple mental model of clientaccounts to be developed, leveraged and easily transferred to other teammembers.

The same Chart building methodology can be used to build any kind ofroster. For example, a COTA Roster Builder allows copying of contactsinto a shell for the purposes of populating a roster. This feature ismuch faster than typing address information into a spread sheet ordeveloping a mail merge type application for a team of say ten (10)people. Rosters or organizational charts can be created by copyingcontacts information into charts as above or spreadsheets. The COTAOrganizational Chart software also allows the user to preset aspects ofthe contact file for display such as, for example, name, title, address,phone, etc.

27. Filing Cabinets

The COTA system 100 includes an inventive arrangement of physical orhard copy KID storage mechanisms. One mechanism, depicted in FIG. 12, isa COTA filing cabinet 600. The COTA filing cabinet differs fromconvention filing cabinets in the following ways.

(1) Unlike other filing cabinets, the COTA filing cabinet 600 includesclear and concise directions on how to file KID using the COTA system100. In one embodiment, the directions document, referred to as ‘COTAGuide’ 610 fits neatly into an attractive, built in transparent pouch ona side or a front portion of the filing cabinet 600. The COTA Guide 610reminds users of some basic guidelines for setting up and maintainingtheir KID using the COTA categories.

(2) The COTA system 100 provides a COTA map document 620 detailing thecontents of the COTA filing cabinet 600. Preferably, the COTA map 620 isa summary of the user's specific data layout within COTA. The COTA map620 is updated periodically to reflect the current contents of the COTAfiling cabinet 600. Anyone who needs related KID from the filing cabinet600 consults the COTA map 620 and quickly locates the KID storedtherein. This feature is optional and not recommend for those who havehighly sensitive KID in their COTA cabinet 600.

(3) The COTA filing cabinet 600 includes cards or labels 630 that areattached to the front of draws 640 of the filing cabinet 600 fordefining each major COTA category stored within the draws 640 of thefiling cabinet 600. The cards 630 include a percentage that indicateshow much of the draw 640 includes KID related to a referenced COTAcategory. For example, a first upper card 630 of the filing cabinet 600notes that one hundred percent (100%) of the draw 640 includes clientfiles. This feature allows the user to know exactly which draw containsKID within one of the COTA categories. It should be appreciated that KIDfrom one or more categories may reside in one or more draws 640. Forexample, as illustrated in FIG. 12, KID relating to clients spill overinto an output category draw.

(4) The filing cabinet may also come with a supply of filing materialsincluding color coded COTA labels, COTA manila file folders, and COTAfile holders. Each item comes with a clear explanation of how it is usedwithin the COTA system.

It should be appreciate that the aforementioned cards, labels, maps etc.can be paper-based (e.g., made of card stock) or electronic (e.g.,presented on a display device such as an LCD).

28. Shelves

A second hard copy KID storage mechanism employed by the COTA system 100includes COTA shelves. The COTA shelves are constructed with indicatorsthat show where each primary COTA category (clients, output, teams andadministration) begins and ends. If most of binders or books for aparticular user are found in one of the COTA categories (e.g., theoutput section), this section is stretched or marked on the bookshelfwith sliders or other markers/partitions. In on embodiment, shelvesinclude placeholders for the COTA Maps, the COTA guide, etc.

29. Spiral Bound Notebook Spines

The COTA system 100 also includes a labeling mechanism for spiral spine.As can be appreciated, it is generally difficult to identify on a splinethe contents of a spiral bound book that is sitting on a shelf. As aresult, it is common for important information to be ignored becauseusers eventually forget that a particular spiral bound binder wascreated for a particular reason. The COTA system employs Spiral Splinesfor tagging spiral binder. The Spiral Splines can be labeled and placedinside the spiral wiring of a spiral bound notebook so that the externallabel is clearly shown to the user. This allows an enterprise toleverage the low cost of spiral bound production while helping users touse and leverage the information without losing it. The spiral insertcan be attached before shipping, with shipping, or purchased separatelyby users at any time.

30. COTA Keyboard and Mouse

A COTA Keyboard is similar to conventional Qwerty computer keyboards.However, several differences do exist such as, for example:

(1) Buttons are conveniently placed on a COTA keyboard for each Level 1of the COTA categories 200 (e.g., COTA—“clients,” “output,” “teams,” and“admin.” as well as TAO—“teams and people,” “activities,” and“organizations”). When the buttons are selected the user is takendirectly to that particular partition of stored KID which can then benavigated by mouse or other navigation means.

(2) Buttons are color coded and clearly labeled.

(3) Buttons are large and easy to press without even looking up from thescreen.

(4) In the COTA system 100 the buttons can be password protected, e.g.,“clients,” “output,” “teams,” and “admin” buttons can provide immediateaccess to corresponding COTA categories while “teams and people,”“activities,” and “organizations” buttons representing the personal TAOcategories can be password protected. Of course, one or more of thebuttons corresponding to any of the COTA categories may be passwordprotected.

(5) Function key buttons can also be programmed for the samefunctionality. When function or shortcut keys are used, color-codedlabels or plastic covers can be placed over the keys to identify theCOTA pathway that they represent. The COTA Keyboard functions alloperating environments, e.g., WINDOWS 95, 98, 2000, LINUX, etc.platforms and with the Locate and Leverage methodology described herein.

(6) Additional buttons may or may not be added to the COTA keyboard forcommon document manipulation techniques such as, for example, “save,”“saveas,” “copy,” “paste,” “insert,” etc.

In one embodiment of the COTA system 100, one or more buttonsrepresenting the COTA logical partitions 200 may be added to a standardmouse. When depressed, a user can navigate directly to a particularpartition in the UKIDS 160. Buttons can be placed in any convenientplace upon the mouse. This allows the user to navigate with greaterspeed and agility. Additional buttons can be added to the COTA Mouse forthe most common document manipulation techniques such as, for example,“save,” “saveas,” “copy,” “paste,” “insert,” etc.

An example highlights some benefits of implementing the COTA Keyboardand Mouse. A user with the COTA Locate and Leverage technology and theCOTA Mouse and Keyboard receives an email with two attachments. Theywant to save one of the attachments in “COTA/1.Clients/GM/Widgets” andthe other in “COTA/Output/Widgets/Pricing” folders. The procedureincludes:

(1) Highlight the first attachment and hit the “client” button on theCOTA Keyboard and then use the COTA Mouse to select a “GM/Widgets”folders then hit a “save” button on the inner right portion of the COTAMouse.

(2) Highlight the second attachment and hit the “output” button on theCOTA Keyboard, use the COTA Mouse to select “Widgets/Pricing” folder,then hit the “save” button on the inner right hand side of the COTAMouse.

Contrast this with the steps that a user might take in the currenthardware/software configuration:

(1) Select the first attachment, select a “save” command from a menu,select a “C:/My Documents” folder, select “Clients/GM/Widgets” folderand click on “save” button again.

(2) Select the second attachment, select the save command, select the“C:/My Documents” folder, select “Output/Widgets/Pricing” folder, andselect a “save” button.

Generally speaking, use of the COTA Keyboard and Mouse requires a totalof fourteen (14) actions, while the conventional process requires twenty(20) actions. In other words the COTA Keyboard/Mouse/Locate and Leveragescenario saves the user about thirty percent (30%) of the manual effortrequired to save an attachment. When one considers that there are almostone billion computers in use worldwide, a thirty percent reduction in afundamental task could result in billions of hours of saved time andincreased productivity each year.

Optional features that may be added to the COTA Keyboard and Mouse are“favorites,” “TAO categories,” “data targeting,” etc.

The UKIDS/COTA Mouse and Keyboard can also be configured to work withPDAs, cell phones, etc. This will allow users to navigate through theiractual COTA system or a COTA Map, Guide, or Shell. This will allow auser to operate two devices with the same input devices. Standardizinginput devices will make operation of these devices more intuitivealthough size of keyboards and mice may limit usage in some situations.

31. COTA Meeting Material

The COTA system also employs a COTA Meeting Material that includesfolders of various sizes having partitions that allow users to store thecontents of a meeting in a logical manner based upon the COTAcategories. The COTA Meeting Materials include, for example:

(1) A four (4) compartment folder holder with designations for each ofthe COTA categories (client, output, teams, and administration). Thesefolder holders are clearly labeled and color coded.

(2) Binder design and partitions: Some meetings include the distributionof binders. Binders can be sub-divided by the COTA categories and employCOTA Color Coding. Binders on a particular COTA sub-category, forexample, an expense report binder, can be pre-color coded and COTALabeled for easy storage after the meeting.

32. COTA Kit

Working with filing cabinets, book shelves and CD ROM libraries requiresa large number of office supplies including file folders, labels, folderholders (large and small), folder holder tab holders, folder holder tabinserts, CD ROM holders, spine inserts, spine labels, etc. Anotherproblem is that users are usually not given any guidance as to how tostructure their filing cabinet system.

After a user has converted their computer storage system to COTAmethodology, all physical storage platforms to can be converted to theCOTA methodology. To ease this transformation, a COTA Kit is provided.The COTA Kit includes all of the filing and office supply materialsneeded to convert the current filing cabinet, book shelves, and CD ROMlibrary to a COTA system 100. The COTA Kit can sit in a milk crate sizedfile folder box. The COTA Kit contains an external sleeve for the user'sCOTA Map, Guide, and a table of COTA Kit contents. The COTA Kitincludes, for example:

(1) Regular and large sized hanging File folder holders, file folderholder tabs, color coded laser labels, Manila folders, CD Rom Holders,Binder Spines, COTA Spiral Spines (see description below), MagicMarkers, Spine supports, and all items needed to convert an normal sizeFiling Cabinet, CD Rom Library, Title Labels and inserts, and Book Shelfand Binder Shelf over to COTA.

(2) The COTA Kit also contains an actual prototype of how the user willstructure files. In other words, if the user is working with COTA theywill receive a prototype that shows:

-   -   (A) How major Partitions are defined (Left-most folder holder        tab) (proposed color coding: “1. Clients”=Green; “2.        Output”=Blue; “3. Teams”=Yellow; and “4. Admin.”=Red),    -   (B) How sub folder holder tabs (e.g., Client 1) are color coded        and placed (Center Position)    -   (C) How file folders are color coded and place (1.        Clients=Green, 2. Output=Blue, 3. Teams=Yellow, and 4.        Admin.=Red) using right cut file folder tabs, for example. The        effect of this strongly suggested placement is that the user can        read titles from General to Specific locations from left to        right, which mirrors the way that most computer software sets up        filing architecture. The prototype serves as a constant reminder        of the enterprises preferred structure.

The COTA Kit includes spine labels for binders and marketing materialsthat have no designation in their spine. The COTA Kit also includeseverything the user needs to create and label a manual CD ROM librarywith the COTA categories.

33. Labeler

Users often struggle to maintain their hard copy filing systems forseveral reasons. Firstly, materials distributed to users often do notlend themselves to accurate storage. For example, spiral bound notebookswhen placed on a bookshelf do not readily reveal the actual content ofthe binder. Many marketing pieces and three-ring binders are distributedwithout any spine designation. The problem occurs when the user needs toretrieve the binder but cannot locate it. Secondly, handouts are oftengiven in brochure sleeves that do not fit into a filing cabinet folderso the user is responsible for creating and accurately labeling afolder. Thirdly, when creating file folders it is difficult for the userto use the same naming conventions as they used on their computersbecause users have no ability to quickly recall computer namingconventions. This leads to non-standardized file names between filingplatforms. Finally, employees are receiving an increasing number of CDROMs has been developed to date. No global strategies for labeling andstoring these CD ROMs have been developed to date.

The COTA system provides a solution, the COTA labeler. The COTA labeleris a combination of software and printer that a user employs to createall of the folder labels, folder holder tabs, notebook/binder spines, CDROM labels, file cabinet placards, CD ROM binder spines and chaptertabs. The COTA labeler contains the users COTA category information thatcan be displayed on a simple LCD or computer screen. The COTA labelerintegrates into the user's printer, computer system, or sits as a standalone printer-software computer combination on the user's filing cabinetor bookshelf. The standalone COTA labeler can receive wireless or wiredupdates of the user's COTA categories. The user can also create newfolder names if necessary.

The following scenario describes how the COTA labeler saves time for auser:

(1) Joe has implemented the COTA system on his computer and is in theprocess of converting his filing cabinets to match the COTA structure asclosely as possible.

(2) Joe needs to create a large number of new folder titles. Joe goes tohis filing cabinet and sees the familiar COTA categories from hiscomputer.

(3) Joe taps his way through the menu to select a computer file folderthat he wants to recreate in his filing cabinet.

(4) The COTA labeler quickly prints out a color coded file label thatcontains the parallel title and file path for Joe.

Within 15 minutes, Joe has created and affixed his labels to theappropriate folders. This makes the file cabinet conversion extremelyfast for Joe. The COTA labeler prints out labels for folder holder tabsand file cabinet drawer title cards. Once Joe has completed his filingcabinet conversion it is easy to keep it updated with computer printedlabels. Joe's coworkers sometimes have to access his files when he isaway. They appreciate the clean look of the fonts on the labels. Thecolor coding and COTA structure/system make it easy to find Joe'sinformation. Of course, it makes filing a breeze for Joe especiallycombined with a COTA kit.

34. CD ROM Player

CD ROM disks can be placed in a multiple CD ROM storage unit. The unitresembles a multiple (for example 300 disk storage) CD ROM Stereocomponent. All of the users Computer CDs can be placed into the unit. Aseach CD is placed into the unit, the user's computer allows them toassign a location based upon position within the COTA categories on theuser's computer. For example, the client management software would beplaced under “COTA/1. Client” within the CD ROM library. The position ofthe CD ROM will be shown within the COTA category structure or be sidethe COTA structure for documents within the portal 400.

When a user wants to run a game, business application, musical CD, etc.they simply select CD ROM on the portal 400 and select on the icon forthat particular CD ROM. The CD ROM is then selected and loaded for useby the unit. The CD holder may or may not contain a CD burner. If itdoes contain a CD burner, new CD ROMs could be entered into the COTAsystem as they are created. This concept could apply to any digital oranalog medium now known or developed in the future. Similar functionswould allow for turning off the application and returning it to the CDROM library. Combining the benefits of a UKIDS with CD ROM technologycreates a powerful new tool for information managers.

As an additional feature the COTA CD ROM unit also leverages the COTAData Targeting feature. If a department sends out a CD ROM to adistributed workforce, they can program code into the CD ROM that willcause it to automatically load to the appropriate place in the user's CDROM display. The user can then see all of the CD ROMs that have beenplaced into the CD ROM Unit within the order of the COTA Structure. Thiswill allow for faster location and installation of CD ROM discs in theuser's system.

35. File Folders and Hard Copy

Each day millions of people search filing cabinets with their headsturned sideways trying to re-locate documents with key informationburied in small print and rotated ninety degrees)(90°). This is not auser-friendly method of searching for important letters, documents.

The folder or document can be pre-stamped with the file pathway andproper COTA labeling. Important documents can be labeled with a boldhorizontal lettering across the left side so that they can be moreeasily retrieved in the future without forcing the user to cock theirhead sideways to read the small print on a letter or other soughtdocument.

36. Color Coding Scheme

Color coding is used throughout all applications of the COTA system. Adistinct color can be designated for each major logical categories(e.g., levels) and that color code is used to designate, for example:email, documents, software applications, file cabinet components(drawers, file folders, file folder labels, file tabs, file folderholders, etc.), book shelf components, CD ROM library components, theCOTA portal 400, COTA PDA applications, and all other applications ofthe UKIDS.

One benefit of color coding is to make it even easier for people to findinformation by associating a distinct color with each major logicalbucket of the Universal Data Structure. This color coding also appearson the desktop icons that signify the UKIDS entry point for the enduser. Color coding can be leveraged by users and manufacturers of UKSmerchandise to make the product more user-friendly.

One exemplary color coding scheme for the COTA system 100 follows:

(1) Clients—Green—Symbolized Value

(2) Output—Blue—Symbolizes Quality and Truth

(3) Teams—Yellow—Positive Role of Teamwork

(4) Administration—Red—Symbolizes the need for balance betweenadministration and core job responsibilities.

Implementation

In another aspect of the present invention, an installation processleverages:

(1) Customer specific research and general research to underscoreinformation overload challenge;

(2) The removal of risk of data storage reconfiguration throughmandatory data back up;

(3) A motivational/inspirational presentation; and

(4) Humor to overcome the inertia to change felt by most knowledgeworkers and organizations.

The installation process itself includes the following steps:

(1) Pre-work—Trainee and organizational leaders completes pre-survey todetermine level of information overload and information that will fillthe COTA categories of respective UKIDS 160;

(2) Pre-work—Trainee backs up hard drive information which eliminatesvirtually all risk associated with restructuring;

(3) Class begins—Trainee (from any vocation) attends class and receivesoverview of goals of the COTA system 100. The attendees are informedthat they can return to their old system of organization (if desired)because they have backed up their information;

(4) Trainee shown how to install specific and universal COTA categories,e.g., Level 1 and Level 2 categories on their hard drive. In oneembodiment, an educational CD ROM, instructor, or combination oftechnologies such as Web broadcast, is implemented to guide traineesthrough this step;

(5) Trainee shown how to install specific and universal folders at Level3, Level 4, etc. For example, universal lower level folders include the“general” folders (e.g., “General Clients,” “General Output,” “GeneralTeams,” and “General Administration” folders), Power Added folders,Forms folders, Organizational Chart Folder, and more;

(6) Trainee instructed to install customized Level 3 Folders, which canbe predetermined by management or the employee.

(7) Trainee adds additional standard COTA Level 3, 4, etc. folders;

(8) Trainee creates “COTA” and/or “TAO” category icons on lower, leftside of windows, and desktop;

(9) Trainee is then taught the COTA system rule set (as describedherein);

(10) Trainee shown how to convert existing database over to the COTAcategories 200. For example, KID is re-labeled and relocated fromexisting file structures within a user's hard drive (e.g., “C:/MyDocuments”) and email hanging file folders into the COTA system. Alldocuments are specifically labeled for ease of future retrieval and timestamped to create an additional sort at the document/bottom level; and

(11) Trainee given specific exercises to re-enforce the COTA systemskill set for future use.

FIGS. 14A and 14B illustrate one embodiment of a process flow for theaforementioned implementation process. Once the installation process iscomplete, the trainee has a user friendly, simple, universal, scalable,transferable, and extensible filing structure installed on theircomputer. It should be appreciated that the COTA system implementationprocess is a unique process for restructuring data into a highlyeffective LOCK.

COTA Consulting and Training

In yet another aspect of the present invention, COTA authorizedconsultants provide insight and training into features and functions ofthe COTA system 100 and methodology. The process of converting an entireenterprise's KID systems to a UKIDS encompasses a process of, forexample:

(1) Needs Assessment—The COTA Consultants study the current managementof KID within a target enterprise.

(2) The COTA Consultants work with the enterprise to develop animplementation plan for the COTA system 100.

(3) The implementation plan include, for example:

-   -   (A) Replacement of multiple, unconsolidated data storage systems        (MUDS) with LOCK Systems;    -   (B) Training for field to executive level employees    -   (C) The COTA consultants look for any major business process in        which large amounts of KID exist in an unstructured environment.        COTA Agenda is a great example. Usually Team leaders do not        think very much about creating universal content and context        based agenda. COTA allows for a simple sub-division of meeting        items based upon a known and familiar structure.    -   (D) The COTA Consultants look for situations where users have to        search divergent silos for KID. The COTA Consultant takes these        scenarios and offers redesigns and COTA products to create a        uniform search methodology. An example of this is the        implementation of COTA Business Plan. COTA Business Plan uses        the same methodology to search for information as the COTA        system.    -   (E) Data targeting meetings with all departments teach senders        of information how to create cohesive targeted messages. The        COTA consultants demonstrate how difficult it is for receivers        to make sense of varied and poorly constructed messaging.        -   (I) Challenge: Enterprises spend millions of dollars sending            information to their own people. Some departments have            become almost obsessive about sending out multiple versions            of the same message. For example, the Human Resources            department of a large Fortune 500 company sends out their            monthly benefits update via newsletter, letter, and email.            This ends up costing the corporation a great deal of time            and money. The fear is that the individual will not read and            store the information so Human Resources send out multiple            transmissions at a substantial cost.        -   (II) Solution: The COTA consultants assist enterprises in            developing COTA targeting strategies for all business units.            For example, COTA consultants meet with a marketing            department that sends copious marketing materials to the            Sales Department. The COTA consultants work with the            Marketing Team to target their materials to a single place            in the COTA categories. This could reduce the vast amounts            of money spent on internal and external marketing.    -   (F) The COTA consultants help organizations to scale the COTA        system from field level employees to upper management. Scaling        is also extended to Public Folders and Intranet websites, which        are configured to reflect the COTA structure.    -   (G) The COTA consultants assist organizations in educating        various business units that may not feel that they have a        “client.” The COTA consultants find creative and powerful        methods of revealing that all employees do create value for        internal and external clients.

The COTA consultants provide enterprises with unique, proprietary UKIDS,COTA, and TAO instructional information that helps them leverage theirCOTA systems across the enterprise. The COTA consultants and trainershelp develop and implement the COTA system and methodology at all levelsof an enterprise. Once implemented across a team, business unit, andenterprise, the COTA consultants also demonstrate how the basicmethodology is used for the creation of an effective UKID System. Forexample, how the COTA categories are leveraged such that KID receivedduring the course of a person's professional and personal life fall intoclear categories that can, in turn, be sub-divided. COTA Consultantswill share this unique methodology with their clients.

COTA Leadership Consulting—Tool Kit Software

Executives often struggle to communicate meaningful information to therest of the enterprise. It is difficult to describe complex businessissues to entry level or even experienced staff. There are so manymental models for business that almost any statement designed to createpositive change meets tremendous resistance from a large percentage ofthe enterprise. There are so many people competing for resources withinan organization that Clients needs often suffer. IBM CEO Lou Gerstnerdescribes these issues in vivid detail in his book “Who says ElephantsCan't Dance?” These are some of the problems defined by Gerstner: (1)Some business unit leaders build fiefdoms by adding unneeded people totheir ranks. (IBM Europe Team) They do this to gain prestige. (2) Someadministrative processes become so difficult and legalistic that theyparalyze progress in an organization. (IBM Admin. Team) (3) Finally,some individual's focus so heavily on their product that they forgetthat the client no longer needs the product (IBM 360 Mainframe).

The COTA system provides a solution by offering a COTA LeadershipToolkit. The Toolkit can be delivered via seminar or by software tobusiness leaders by the COTA consultants. The COTA Leadership Toolkithelps business leaders to leverage their employees' familiarity with theCOTA categories and mental models in order to explain complex businessrealities. Never before has an executive had a metaphor for so manypotential business problems and challenges. Until COTA, no one has eversuggested using an enterprises storage structure as an executiveinstructional tool. The COTA Leadership Toolkit allows executives todesign charts which reflect all of the above describe issues at IBM on asingle page. For example, the COTA and free enterprise models of“clients,” “output,” “teams,” and “administration” are leveraged toemphasize employees' role in achieving goals of the enterprise.

COTA Leadership Software

A COTA Leadership Software module provides:

(1) Tutorial on how to communicate with COTA categories in emailmessages, speeches, letters, etc.

(2) COTA Chart Creation Software

(3) Integrating COTA Business Planning Software for your Team orEnterprise

(4) PowerPoint Presentation for other leaders

(5) PowerPoint Presentation for subordinates

(6) Lessons on how to get External and Internal Clients to returnmaximum output

COTA Quality Tune Up Software and Kit

The COTA software can be updated to include periodic Quality Tune Upfunctions. These quarterly, bi-annual, or annual tune ups guide the userthrough the process of repairing any parts of their COTA system that areflawed. It also creates a back up copy of the user's COTA system 100,which can be used to for security and change management purposes at alater date. The Quality Tune Up includes a tour of the user's COTASystem. The user can also show the software areas where there areproblems.

TAO-COTA; TAO-TAO Lifetime Applications and Features

COTA and TAO Classes begin at the age at which an individual firstbegins to work with computers. TAO is the Personal section of the COTAUKIDs. COTA TAO software allows users to create a UKID shell that willserve a person from cradle to grave. The software allows parents topre-populate “wisdom, knowledge, information and data” (WKID) includingFamily values, Pictures, Family History, Social Security Numbers,inheritance information, financial holdings etc. into the appropriateTAO Sub Folder. This transfer of KID will allow for tacit information tobe explicitly transferred in an efficient and meaningful fashion. Thiscan be critical in the event of a sudden divorce or death in the family.The child carries the parent's values, history, guidance, KID, andlearns with them. The TAO Software allows parents or guardians to selectwhat will be transferred from a menu of all of their COTA and TAO KID.Parents can synchronize changes to their TAO system to the child's TAOsystem on a daily basis to facilitate changes over time. For example,changes in a living will. This novel methodology allows the child togrow up with the TAO system. As the child begins to use the computerartwork, pictures, games, and other activities can be saved to their TAOActivities Sub Folders. This allows the child to retain importantlessons from both their parents and their own life experiences. Thestrategic nature of the COTA and TAO systems allows for a structure thateffectively predicts all of the KID that they will receive over thecourse of their life time. TAO and COTA software allow users to archiveKID at appropriate times as the individual transitions from lifeexperience to life experience. For example, College COTA Systems can bearchived when an individual gets a job in the “real world”.

The transition from TAO (Personal) to COTA (Professional) is alsofacilitated by the software. When individuals begin schooling they beginto enter information into the COTA Section because school is a steppingstone for vocational employment. So a person's life starts with the TAOmodule, graduates to the TAO-COTA (Education), TAO-COTA-(Real Job), andends with TAO as the individual retires. TAO and COTA Software actuallytranscends the individual's life because their TAO section can bepre-populated before a child/grand child is born. Wisdom, Knowledge,Information, and Data can be downloaded to descendents before or afterthe individual dies. In this regard, COTA and TAO KID are completelynovel. The real benefit is that the user can leverage KID that islocated in an intuitive and easy to find place in their UKIDs system.The TAO module comes factory pre-populated with important optionallessons for each part of an individual's life. Lessons include allmanner of KID relating to living a happy, healthy, and productive life.Customized modules can be purchased for specific lessons such asspirituality or specific or complex activities (concert pianist) etc.The COTA and TAO Software will dramatically improve the effectivenessand productivity of education in the world.

COTA Class (Grade School, High School, College, and Beyond)

Students often leave academic institutions and join the workforce withfew real world document and project management skills. The role of astudent doesn't adequately prepare them for the volume and complexity ofcorporate communications. Remarkably, educational institutions are notunlike commercial enterprises in their complete lack of concern abouttheir student's organizational skills and learning skills. This isstunning when we consider that the dissemination of knowledge is aneducator's primary responsibility. How many brilliant discoveries,ideas, or research projects have slipped away because an individuallacked the ability keep track of their knowledge, information, anddata??? Sadly, when students reach the “real world” they tend to mimicother co-workers who create sub-standard “on the fly” informationsystems. Enterprises resort to expensive and complex CRM style softwarepackages that add layers of complexity to protect Knowledge,Information, and Data. This is a broken system that needs to berestructured.

COTA/TAO Class consists of a several educational modules that teachgrade school, high school, college, adult, and corporate students how toeffectively create and manage a world class LOCK System. The COTA Classbelow is designed for college-aged students. However, the basicmethodology and structure of education would be very similar for alllevels of students. The COTA Course could be taught in many ways but weare highlighting one particularly non-obvious method below. One versionof COTA class contains but is not limited to the following curriculum:

(1) Week 1—Overview of Life: This module explores the structure of humanlife and demonstrates how COTA is reverse engineered from our ownthought process. The Chart below demonstrates how the COTA and TAObuckets were originally created. Week 1 consists of a 10,000 foot viewof Life and the long term benefits of COTA for students. Students aregiven the basic System, structure, and guidelines for using COTA andTAO.

(2) Week 2—Overview of Clients Section: This module consists ofexercises that reveal the nature of Internal and External Clientrelations to the student. The class is broken into work teams and givenexercises to determine the Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Clients foran enterprise. The concept of return value is discussed throughout thecourse but is particularly emphasized in the Client section. Clients aredefined as the people who provide or impact return value to the Team. Along term assignment involving the team's analysis and response to aparticular Mock Client's needs begins at this time. The Team constructsits Client UKIDs system. This construction process continues throughoutthe assignment. A computer or teacher can begin e-mailing and mailingmessages to the students who must process the information into thecorrect buckets.

(3) Week 3—Overview of Output: Students learn to define Output as morethan, just products or services. Value Added Products and Services arealso discussed in detail. Creating and Managing Output relative toClient's needs is discussed at length. E-mail and mail arrive that helpthe team differentiate between items that need to be stored under Clientand items that need to be stored under Output.

(4) Week 4—Overview of Team Module: This section consists of 2-3 Mockmeetings that are held to discuss the Team's Mission, Output, Clients,etc. The Mock meeting involves notes, rosters, agenda's action items,presentations, and other standard meeting materials. The Team learns howto manage this kind of information as a cohesive unit. Again, a computerprogram or teacher now begins to send Client, Output, and Team relatedinformation to the Team via Mail, E-Mail and even Voice Mail.

(5) Week 5—Overview of Admin.—This section teaches how things like a401K statement, Resume, Travel and Expense Report should be stored. TheTeam now begins to receive information on all 4 COTA categories.

(6) Week 6-COTA TAO—The group takes one week to create personal TAOfolders. This portion of the class is done individually because studentsare creating REAL TAO folders. The purpose of this is to make sure thatall students have their personal affairs in order. Fun exercises aregiven to help students organize their personal lives.

(7) Week 7-8—Assignments—Assignments are now given out and the teambegins to work on a MOCK project. They have to create matching teamproject folders and leverage the information that has been sent to themover the past 6 weeks.

(8) Weeks 9-10—Presentations: The Teams present their findings to therest of the class. A computer or teacher grades the COTA structurescreated by the class and the quality of the team project folders thathave been created.

(9) Weeks 10-12 Discussion of COTA and TAO—In the final 3 weeks of theclass the teacher ties together the COTA concept with the freeenterprise system. Students are asked to consider what kind of job theywill be doing in the future. They COTA map their own future vocationsand discuss how they will achieve success. How will they provide betterOutput to Clients to gain increased Return Value. How will theydifferentiate themselves from other employees. How do their Clientpopulations break out? Are their subdivisions of any of the COTAcategories. What is their strategy for moving through learning curvesmore rapidly? Examples of successful people including entrepreneurs,artists, and executives are given to help students visualize a mentalmodel for success wrapped around the COTA System.

COTA Class also contains an overview of Work Life Balance Issues. COTAand TAO are perfect metaphors for the amount of effort, time and energythat one places on their personal vs. professional lives. COTA Work-LifeBalance classes help users to balance their time between work andpersonal life.

Students may attend or purchase software that teaches how to use TAOthroughout their lives. It also teaches the use of TAO as a method ofKID management that transcends the lifetime of the individual.

COTA Organic Intelligence Software

Many IT researchers are currently working to develop systems that trackthe development of relationships between various pieces of information.They track the number of times a particular entity interacts with aparticular virtual website or document. They track these “hits” and forma web of behavioral pathways. They search for patterns in those pathwaysand evaluate the patterns. They are trying to answer questions like“Where do people seek information and why?” “How could robots be trainedto seek out and evaluate information or experiences in the future?” Thisprocess described above mimics the human thought process in that ourexperiences tend to create neural grooves in our brains. When nervesfire in a repeated direction these grooves are reinforced. Behavioralpatterns can be imprinted in this fashion. Alcoholism is a primaryexample of a grooved in behavior. In general, people are creatures ofhabit because our brains tie together certain experiences and sensationsinto a collective series of behaviors. So IT Researchers are trackingKID pathways and behaviors in much the same way that neurologists andbehavioral experts seek to understand how behaviors emerge. But what islacking in the IT research is an acknowledgement of the need for astructural framework within which to evaluate the observed pathways.Such a framework should be based on a hierarchy of content and contextbased KID. In other words, merely tracking places that someone visits isnot as important as knowing who they are and why they are making thetrip. Knowing that a child ran downstairs in the morning is not asimportant as knowing that it is Christmas day and the child is runningto open presents. The Context and content of the experience are whatmatters most. COTA Organic Intelligence Software provides this importantlink between the “Neural Pathways” Approach and the COTA ContextualApproach. We can clearly see that any useful robotic or artificialintelligence system will need to view the world not solely as a seriesof potential pathways but rather as a series of potential pathways withclear ramifications for the “I” or “Self” represented by that organism.Any robot navigating through the world will need to make decisions aboutwhere they need to go and what they need to do. If we want machines tobehave in a useful and appropriate fashion then we need to share ourstructural outlook with them. COTA organic intelligence softwareprovides a map of the human thought process for the expressed purpose ofblending that structure with Neural Pathways approaches to form asuperior understanding of human KID needs and behavior. The merging ofthese two organic approaches results in a superior ability to createentities with true artificial intelligence.

TAO Lock Box

Any information in COTA or TAO can be locked up with the use of a simplepassword that can be delivered via any means of password protectionincluding alpha-numeric, eye scan, Voice recognition, etc.

TAO and COTA Games For Children

It is possible to begin teaching children about TAO at a very young age.All children intuitively understand that they are surrounded by Teams ofPeople including Family and Friends. Children also understand that theirdays consist of Activities that usually involved teams of people. TAOGames are interactive games that help children to begin to place aspectsof their lives into the three major sub-divisions of TAO. The TAO Gameis a board game with a spinner and cards. Children spin the spinner andproceed that number of spaces. Colorful childhood activities aredepicted on the board. As the child lands on a particular space on theboard they draw a card. Each Card has a question regarding the TAObucket into which a particular thing belongs. There are cards forfamily, friends, people, activities, and Organization andAdministration. This simple game can be augmented with COTA cards forwhen the child enters school. The COTA Questions, if answered correctlyare rewarded with certificates of achievement and money. The basic gameis a metaphor for life that helps children to understand the transitionbetween ages 1-5 (TAO) and ages 5 and older (TAO+COTA).

COTA TAO Life Balance Software

People often struggle to strike an adequate balance in and between theirprofessional and personal responsibilities. This software calculates thetime spent working on each aspect of the user's COTA and TAO Systems. Itprovides charts showing the individual's COTA TAO Life Balance. Thissoftware helps users to budget both their personal and professional timeby using the COTA and TAO Flow Charts. Calculations of time and effortspent can be calculated and represented in numerical or graphical form.Graphical formats would involve depicting time as volume. An individualspending too much time on work vs. personal life would have an oversizedCOTA graphic. Workers who spend too much time on Admin or Clients wouldhave these results reflected by a chart showing these categories to beoversized along with a numerical estimate of time spent on eachcategory. The software could also be used to demonstrate what aspects ofpeople's lives are considered to be Activities (fulfilling things thatthe person does) vs. Org. and Admin. (Necessary tasks that must becompleted). Many people fail to enrich their lives with adequateactivities and become unhappy. COTA TAO Life Balance Software helps themto evaluate the possible structural causes for unhappiness. They may bein a relationship with someone who views visiting relatives as anenjoyable activity while their partner views these visits asOrganizational/Administrative. This would be caused by a disconnectwithin the relationship that could result in problems. COTA TAO LifeBalance Software simply calculates and quantifies virtually all oflife's actions into basic categories and then explores the relativetime, energy and task commitment levels to each category.

Although described in the context of preferred embodiments, it should berealized that a number of modifications to these teachings may occur toone skilled in the art. By example, the teachings of this invention arenot intended to be limited to storage of any specific information, thatis, the invention is not intended to be utilized as only a system forstoring paper and/or electronic documents. It should be appreciated thatthe present invention may be used for a more efficient and reliablemeans for storing and retrieving any information of interest to aparticular user.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described withrespect to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by thoseskilled in the art that changes in form and details may be made thereinwithout departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.

1. A system for storing knowledge, information and data (KID),comprising: a plurality of sources of KID; a plurality of receivers ofKID from said plurality of sources; and a universal knowledge,information and data store (UKIDS), said UKIDS having a plurality ofphysical and logical levels and partitions for segregating and storingsaid KID in a priority-based and standardized scheme within said UKIDS,said priority based and standardized scheme includes a clustering of KIDinto a plurality of predefined personal and professional storagesubsets, said predefined professional storage subsets cluster KID intosaid levels and partitions of an enterprise shell, a business unitshell, a division shell, a departmental shell, a team shell and anindividual shell, said system further including rules and tools forconfiguring said UKIDS and for storing and accessing KID includedtherein; said rules define methods for allocating KID within one of saidplurality of predefined personal and professional storage subsets, forpurging KID from said UKIDS, and for efficiently sharing anddistributing KID between said receivers; said tools include features andfunctions for presenting news and advertising of interest to saidreceivers, for identifying targeted storage locations within specificones of said plurality of predefined personal and professional storagesubsets, for backup and archiving KID and for securing KID in saidUKIDS; and a first one of said physical and logical levels andpartitions segregates and stores KID into one of said predefinedpersonal storage subsets and said predefined professional storagesubsets, said predefined personal storage subsets segregates and storesKID into a second one of said physical and logical levels includingpartitions of a TEAMS OF PEOPLE storage subset, an ACTIVITIES storagesubset and an ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION storage subset, and saidpredefined professional storage subsets segregates and stores KID into aplurality of second ones of said physical and logical levels, each ofsaid plurality of second ones of said physical and logical levelsincluding partitions of a CLIENTS storage subset, an OUTPUT storagesubset, a TEAMS storage subset and an ADMINISTRATION storage subset, andeach of said plurality of second ones of said physical and logicallevels is one of said enterprise shell, said business unit shell, saiddivision shell, said departmental shell, said team shell and saidindividual shell for said KID; said rules for allocating KID include:using said priority based and standardized scheme of said plurality ofphysical and logical levels and partitions to break ties when KID isplaceable in more than one of said plurality of predefined personal andprofessional storage subsets; using a general storage subset for storingKID that properly references more than one of said plurality of logicallevels and partitions; employing an indication of priority within asubset label for a selected storage subset when said selected storagesubset contains a relatively large number of KID subsets; maximizingavailability of icons representing subsets of said physical and logicallevels and partitions to highlight pathways for locating KID; andarranging physical storage locations to reflect said priority based andstandardized scheme of said plurality of physical and logical levels andpartitions and consistently labeling said physical storage locations;and said rules for purging KID include, at a predetermined time period:separating KID into a first category of KID that is needed, a secondcategory of KID that is not needed but retained on hand, and a thirdcategory of KID that is not needed and not retained; purging said thirdcategory; and placing said second category into a long term storagelocation.
 2. The storage system of claim 1 wherein said TEAMS OF PEOPLEstorage subset includes KID pertaining to family, friends, and othergroups of person of interest to said receivers.
 3. The storage system ofclaim 1 wherein said ACTIVITIES storage subset includes KID pertainingto vacations, sports, entertainment, spirituality, hobbies, and otheractivities.
 4. The storage system of claim 1 wherein said ORGANIZATIONAND ADMINISTRATION storage subset includes KID pertaining to homeupkeep, bills and other financial concerns.
 5. The storage system ofclaim 1 wherein said CLIENTS storage subset includes KID pertaining tophilosophical groups of internal and external clients, customers,patrons, client projects, markets, key vendors, and sales territories.6. The storage system of claim 1 wherein said OUTPUT storage subsetincludes KID pertaining to products, services, value added products andservices, and any of the aforementioned offered to clients.
 7. Thestorage system of claim 1 wherein said TEAMS storage subset includes KIDpertaining to partnerships, collaborations, and any grouping ofindividuals that provide output to clients.
 8. The storage system ofclaim 1 wherein said ADMINISTRATION storage subset includes KIDpertaining to an operation and coordination of a business, businessservices, work flow and personnel, and non-core job responsibility. 9.The storage system of claim 1 wherein said plurality of physical andlogical levels and partitions span a plurality of data storage platformsincluding electronic and hard-copy storage means.
 10. The storage systemof claim 9 wherein said electronic storage means includes computer harddrives, backup and recovery media and off-line storage media.
 11. Thestorage system of claim 10 wherein said hard-copy storage means includesbookcases, filing cabinets and desk tops.
 12. The storage system ofclaim 1 further including a graphical user interface that allows each ofsaid receivers direct access to electronic stored KID within saidlogical levels and partitions of said UKIDS and to launch one or more ofsaid tools.
 13. The storage system of claim 12, wherein said graphicaluser interface allows each of said receivers to distribute KID to otherof said receivers and to identify a targeted location for storing saidKID within one of said plurality of physical and logical levels andpartitions.
 14. The storage system of claim 13 wherein said targetedstorage location is comprised of a path for manual storage of saiddistributed KID within said physical and logical levels and partitions.15. The storage system of claim 13 wherein said targeted storagelocation is comprised of at least a partially automated one of saidtools such that, upon request, said distributed KID is automaticallystored in a specified one of said physical and logical levels andpartitions.
 16. The storage system of claim 1, wherein said rules forallocating KID further include: eliminating software application defaultstorage locations such that electronic KID is stored within one of saidplurality of logical levels and partitions; implementing one storagesystem spanning electronic and physical storage locations; labeling allKID so as to include at least a date and a title thereof; when optionsfor searching one subset of said plurality of physical and logicallevels and partitions exceeds a predetermined number of KID storagelocations, re-organizing said subset through sub-categorization;establishing guidelines for duration of KID storage in electronic andphysical UKIDS storage means; and naming subset KID storage categoriesto describe content and context of the KID being stored therein.
 17. Thestorage system of claim 1, wherein said rules for purging KID include,when an employee leaves a position, providing a copy of said pluralityof personal storage subsets to said employee, moving said plurality ofpersonal storage subsets to a long term storage location, and purgingsaid personal storage subsets from said UKIDS.
 18. The storage system ofclaim 1, wherein said rules for sharing and distributing KID include:prior to when an employee leaves a position, having said employeeprovide a successor employee a tour of said plurality of physical andlogical levels and partitions within said UKIDS and identify importantKID stored therein; identifying to a recipient receiver a targetedlocation for storing distributed KID within one of said plurality ofphysical and logical levels and partitions; and employing quantityreduction and content quality improvement goals for reducing a volume ofdistributed KID.
 19. A storage management system, comprising: auniversal knowledge information and data store (UKIDS), said UKIDShaving a plurality of physical and logical levels and partitions forsegregating and storing knowledge, information and data (KID) in apriority-based and standardized scheme within said UKIDS, said prioritybased and standardized scheme includes a universal clustering of KIDinto a plurality of predefined personal and professional storagesubsets, said predefined professional storage subsets cluster KID intosaid levels and partitions of an enterprise shell, a business unitshell, a division shell, a departmental shell, a team shell and anindividual shell, said system further including rules and tools forconfiguring said UKIDS and for storing and accessing KID includedtherein; said rules define methods for allocating KID within one of saidplurality of predefined personal and professional storage subsets, forpurging KID from said UKIDS, and for efficiently sharing anddistributing KID between said receivers; said tools include features andfunctions for presenting news and advertising of interest to saidreceivers, for identifying targeted storage locations within specificones of said plurality of predefined personal and professional storagesubsets, for backup and archiving KID and for securing KID in saidUKIDS; and a first one of said physical and logical levels andpartitions segregates and stores KID into one of said predefinedpersonal storage subsets and said predefined professional storagesubsets, said predefined personal storage subsets segregates and storesKID into a second one of said physical and logical levels includingpartitions of a TEAMS OF PEOPLE storage subset, an ACTIVITIES storagesubset and an ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION storage subset, and saidpredefined professional storage subsets segregates and stores KID into aplurality of second ones of said physical and logical levels, each ofsaid plurality of second ones of said physical and logical levelsincluding partitions of a CLIENTS storage subset, an OUTPUT storagesubset, a TEAMS storage subset and an ADMINISTRATION storage subset, andeach of said plurality of second ones of said physical and logicallevels is one of said enterprise shell, said business unit shell, saiddivision shell, said departmental shell, said team shell and saidindividual shell for said KID; said rules for allocating KID include:using said priority based and standardized scheme of said plurality ofphysical and logical levels and partitions to break ties when KID isplaceable in more than one of said plurality of predefined personal andprofessional storage subsets; using a general storage subset for storingKID that properly references more than one of said plurality of logicallevels and partitions; employing an indication of priority within asubset label for a selected storage subset when said selected storagesubset contains a relatively large number of KID subsets; maximizingavailability of icons representing subsets of said physical and logicallevels and partitions to highlight pathways for locating KID; andarranging physical storage locations to reflect said priority based andstandardized scheme of said plurality of physical and logical levels andpartitions and consistently labeling said physical storage locations;and said rules for purging KID include, at a predetermined time period:separating KID into a first category of KID that is needed, a secondcategory of KID that is not needed but retained on hand, and a thirdcategory of KID that is not needed and not retained; purging said thirdcategory; and placing said second category into a long term storagelocation.
 20. The storage system of claim 19, wherein said rules forallocating KID further include: eliminating software application defaultstorage locations such that electronic KID is stored within one of saidplurality of logical levels and partitions; implementing one storagesystem spanning electronic and physical storage locations; labeling allKID so as to include at least a date and a title thereof; when optionsfor searching one subset of said plurality of physical and logicallevels and partitions exceeds a predetermined number of KID storagelocations, re-organizing said subset through sub-categorization;establishing guidelines for duration of KID storage in electronic andphysical UKIDS storage means; and naming subset KID storage categoriesto describe content and context of the KID being stored therein.
 21. Asystem for storing knowledge, information and data (KID), comprising: aplurality of sources of KID; a plurality of receivers of KID from saidplurality of sources; and a universal knowledge, information and datastore (UKIDS), said UKIDS having a plurality of physical and logicallevels and partitions for segregating and storing said KID in apriority-based and standardized scheme within said UKIDS, said prioritybased and standardized scheme includes a clustering of KID into aplurality of predefined personal and professional storage subsets, saidpredefined professional storage subsets cluster KID into said levels andpartitions of an enterprise shell, a business unit shell, a divisionshell, departmental shell, team shell and an individual shell, saidsystem further including rules and tools for configuring said UKIDS andfor storing and accessing KID included therein; said rules definemethods for allocating KID within one of said plurality of predefinedprofessional storage subsets, for purging KID from said UKIDS, and forefficiently sharing and distributing KID between said receivers; and afirst one of said physical and logical levels and partitions segregatesand stores KID into said personal storage subset and said plurality ofpredefined professional storage subsets, said plurality of predefinedprofessional storage subsets segregates and stores KID into a pluralityof second ones of said physical and logical levels, each of saidplurality of second ones of said physical and logical levels includingpartitions of a CLIENTS storage subset, an OUTPUT storage subset, aTEAMS storage subset and an ADMINISTRATION storage subset, and each ofsaid plurality of second ones of said physical and logical levels is oneof said enterprise shell, said business unit shell, said division shell,said departmental shell, said team shell and said individual shell forsaid KID; said rules for allocating KID include: using said prioritybased and standardized scheme of said plurality of physical and logicallevels and partitions to break ties when KID is placeable in more thanone of said plurality of predefined personal and professional storagesubsets; using a general storage subset for storing KID that properlyreferences more than one of said plurality of logical levels andpartitions; employing an indication of priority within a subset labelfor a selected storage subset when said selected storage subset containsa relatively large number of KID subsets; maximizing availability oficons representing subsets of said physical and logical levels andpartitions to highlight pathways for locating KID; and arrangingphysical storage locations to reflect said priority based andstandardized scheme of said plurality of physical and logical levels andpartitions and consistently labeling said physical storage locations;and said rules for purging KID include, at a predetermined time period:separating KID into a first category of KID that is needed, a secondcategory of KID that is not needed but retained on hand, and a thirdcategory of KID that is not needed and not retained; purging said thirdcategory; and placing said second category into a long term storagelocation.
 22. The storage system of claim 21, wherein said tools includefeatures and functions for presenting news and advertising of interestto said receivers, for identifying targeted storage locations withinspecific ones of said plurality of predefined professional storagesubsets, for backup and archiving KID and for securing KID in saidUKIDS.